Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 As a farmer I am a bit concerned of the logic the people who are looking for strictly grass fed animals. According to WAP principles you are also looking to consume the fat of an animal for its benifits, but if there is not a MODERATE(less than 2% of its body weight per day) in grain you will not have a good amount of fat within the meat structure(less than 16%) Sheep don't eat haylage only grass and dry hay with most farmers feeding grain in colder climates to keep body weight on an animal.(animals in cold weather use a large amount of energy just to stay warm if grain isn't fed the body of an animal begins to shrink, as well as organ damage and brain shrinkage and eventually death.) A normal ruminant animal would in its natural setting eat the mature heads of grass ( the seed grains) along with fresh green grass, and in snow conditions only eat the heads of plants to survive. These animals still hold true to that practice when out on pasture, I will admit that a large share of farmers go way over board on grain but on the small farmer producer level they are more in line with the natural amount animals are required to consume. There is also a vast difference on which grain to feed!! Oats is the best for all animals and is the traditional animal grain, barley as well, millet and milo(amarath) are old wild grains as well as wheat, but in small amounts on the latter grains. Oats are almost harmless as to the volume eaten because of the hull that has massive fiber content surrounding the seed. It slows the process down and animals become full very quick on oats. Corn on the other hand is a grass but altered to a state that you can kill and animal by feeding to much. If all you see shelled corn for grain don't bother buying that lamb, if you see ground corn cob and oats that is a good medium. The farmer will tell you what he is feeding. If he says he just buys the feed mill processed lamb feed and doesn't know whats in it to the minute detail, bid him good day. I don't raise lambs, but they don't live much past weaning as for age, but being small they can't consume much as for grain or that which is to high in protien as in corn. See Ya Tim " s.fisher22 " wrote: > I apologize for hitting the list with so many questions all at once. But I > realized after I posted my questions re goat's milk, that I also don't know > what winter lambs should be eating. I will be calling a lamb farmer today to > see what they feed their lambs in winter. I'd like to know what they should > eat, perhaps in descending order of nutritional quality? The following is > the descending order of nutritional quality for cow feed, as I understood it > from answers to Barb's questions. Please jump in and correct this if I'm > wrong: > > grass > hay > grass silage > hay silage > ??grains?? > ?? > > Is this list appropriate for all livestock ruminants? Can anyone fill in the > blanks after hay silage? What would be the descending order of grains - from > healthiest to least healthy? I may not find the perfectly-fed local lamb or > goat's milk, so I'd at least like to get an idea of what may be a reasonable > compromise. > > Does anyone have an opinion on what percent of grain they would accept in > the diet of a milking cow, milking goat, beef steer or lamb whose milk/meat > they would consume when 100% grass-fed is not available? > > Suze Fisher > Web Design & Development > http://www.suscom-maine.net/~cfisher/ > mailto:s.fisher22@... > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 I've been told by one goat farmer that grass (ie grazing) isn't as good for goats because they are " browsers " rather than " grazers " -- meaning that they naturally seek out non-grass forages. That was his rationale for not rotationally grazing his transitional organic goats even though he IS a rotational grazer with his certified organic cow herd. So I'm somewhat curious about the discussion that will take place about this subject too. I believe that goats should definitely still be grazing (or browsing), but *what* they should be grazing is probably different than for cows. I'm guessing that goats could probably be effectively grazed on pastures that are allowed to have have a higher percentage of herbs and/or mature grasses (rather than the tender young grasses that cattle prefer). One thing that occurred to me is the possibility of using goats as part of the " clean-up " for a paddock that had recently been grazed by cattle. The principle being that they will " clean up " any of the coarser forages that the cattle passed over. Many graziers use this principle for pasturing their chickens. I wonder if it wouldn't make sense to either bring goats through after the cows but before the chickens (giving the chickens more dung to scavenge bugs from) or to bring the goats through after both the cows and the chickens. Any of you goat farmers have any thoughts on this? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 >but if there is not a MODERATE(less than 2% of its body weight >per day) in grain you will not have a good amount of fat within the meat >structure(less than 16%) What % body weight do you feed the animals in grass and other non-grain fodder? >A normal ruminant animal would in its natural setting eat the mature heads of >grass ( the seed grains) along with fresh green grass, and in snow conditions >only eat the heads of plants to survive. This is true, from what I've read, but the problem is that modern grain used as feed for both people and livestock doesn't resemble those mature grass seed heads much at all. >Oats is the best for all animals and is the traditional animal grain, >barley as >well, millet and milo(amarath) are old wild grains as well as wheat, but in >small amounts on the latter grains. Not being a farmer and not having looked into this subject much I have no idea what the relative merits of those feeds are, but I am sure that modern oats don't greatly resemble wild original oats. I'd speculate that fields growing a wide variety of herbs and wild grasses would tend to offer the best fodder for ruminants. Perhaps goats need more woody growth, though. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 19, 2002 Report Share Posted March 19, 2002 Suze- >grass >hay >grass silage Far as I know grass silage is far superior to hay because it preserves much of the moist nutrient content of the grass. - Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted March 20, 2002 Report Share Posted March 20, 2002 We feed about 5 to 7 % of total body weight feed ration per day to our milk cows after looking again at our grain rations it only comes out to 1.2% of body weight. Most (75%) of dairy cattle in the US are feed a ration of 10 to 12% of body weight and 60 to 70% percent of that ration is corn and or corn silage mix (= about 50 to 60lbs a day grain and or corn silage) This is basically a feed lot steer ration, and the cows are virtually eating them selves to death, not a problem for the steer they only live 11/2 years but milk cows are supposed to last upwards of 10 national average is about 3 years. Idol wrote: > >but if there is not a MODERATE(less than 2% of its body weight > >per day) in grain you will not have a good amount of fat within the meat > >structure(less than 16%) > > What % body weight do you feed the animals in grass and other non-grain fodder? > > >A normal ruminant animal would in its natural setting eat the mature heads of > >grass ( the seed grains) along with fresh green grass, and in snow conditions > >only eat the heads of plants to survive. > > This is true, from what I've read, but the problem is that modern grain > used as feed for both people and livestock doesn't resemble those mature > grass seed heads much at all. > > >Oats is the best for all animals and is the traditional animal grain, > >barley as > >well, millet and milo(amarath) are old wild grains as well as wheat, but in > >small amounts on the latter grains. > > Not being a farmer and not having looked into this subject much I have no > idea what the relative merits of those feeds are, but I am sure that modern > oats don't greatly resemble wild original oats. > > I'd speculate that fields growing a wide variety of herbs and wild grasses > would tend to offer the best fodder for ruminants. Perhaps goats need more > woody growth, though. > > - > > > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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