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market-farming - Re: [Market-farming] Vetting Local Producers

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  • From: Garth & Kim Travis <gartht AT txcyber.com>
  • To: Market Farming <market-farming AT lists.ibiblio.org>
  • Subject: Re: [Market-farming] Vetting Local Producers
  • Date: Wed, 14 Apr 2010 09:12:53 -0500

Greetings,
I do believe the problem comes from how you define grain? We are 100% forage based, and no, I never do need to feed 'grain'. I do feed alfalfa pellets, if needed and as treats for training. I sprout my grains before feeding when needed. My animals have never had bloat from my rich pastures, I have been raising cattle this way for 12 years now, sheep for 6. And yes, it is a question I ask, and yes I want a black and white answer, no grain means just that. I won't accept any grain in a ruminant I plan on eating, it is not needed.

Any grain at all changes the flora in the intestine, so I do believe they are correct.

Bright Blessings,
Garth & Kim Travis
www.TheRoseColoredForest.com
Bedias, Texas

KAKerby AT aol.com wrote:
I guess I'd toss my hat into the ring of "well intentioned but disconnected", in the context that they're asking reasonable questions but painting black and white answers in a very diversified spectrum of possibilities. The animal questions stood out to me as being the greatest example of that. The comment about "no grain, ever" could be straight out of the Weston A Price literature, which is nice and well intended. But if you've got high producing animals, even on rich pasture they sometimes need at least some grain or supplementation to maintain body condition. Leave them on insufficiently rich pasture alone (which can fluctuate by the hour and/or with cloudcover) and they can go into metabolic imbalance which can become life threatening. Put them on super-rich pasture so they don't need the grain, and they risk bloat and grass tetany. Sometimes, that grain ration can keep an animal balanced very nicely at a very healthy condition. But that document doesn't allow for a mix of grains; it assumes grass pasture or feedlot-style massive amounts of grain. No middle ground.





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