Guest guest Posted April 16, 2012 Report Share Posted April 16, 2012 No grains, grass-fed cows. Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT & T slbooks4me wrote: >Mark do you know anything about this farms practices? I have not seen any articles that actually go into diet, breeds, etc. I was wondering if they feed a lot of grains. > > > > >> >> One of the local small diary farms has recently had a quite serious >> potential E coli outbreak. I say potential because it well be several weeks >> before the state gets backs it testing from the samples taken at the farm . >> There is several under fifteen years old in the hospital tow with kidney >> failure and eleven others that got sick so it is quite serious. This is >> outside of portland oregon in wilsonville. >> > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 No grains, grass-fed cows.The key is not so much that the cows are " grassfed " as that they get some roughage. Pasture, unfortunately, lacks roughage.-Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 17, 2012 Report Share Posted April 17, 2012 That being said, grassfed is still a good thing. No grains, grass-fed cows.The key is not so much that the cows are " grassfed " as that they get some roughage. Pasture, unfortunately, lacks roughage. -Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 I suppose it depends on how you maintain your pasture. Some pastures do have more roughage than others. But from my understanding, the dry roughage is the most effective in preventing E. Coli O157:H7. -Bill That being said, grassfed is still a good thing. No grains, grass-fed cows.The key is not so much that the cows are " grassfed " as that they get some roughage. Pasture, unfortunately, lacks roughage. -Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 19, 2012 Report Share Posted April 19, 2012 That's the struggle here in the Willamette Valley, OR. Lots of rain and short green grass. You try to rotate pastures, provide good quality hay, etc and sometimes you still end up with issues. Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT & T Bill wrote: >I suppose it depends on how you maintain your pasture. Some pastures do >have more roughage than others. But from my understanding, the dry >roughage is the most effective in preventing E. Coli O157:H7. > >-Bill > > > >> That being said, grassfed is still a good thing. >> >> >> >> >>> On Mon, Apr 16, 2012 at 10:49 PM, Audrey Zuber wrote: >>> >>>> No grains, grass-fed cows. >>>> >>> >>> The key is not so much that the cows are " grassfed " as that they get some >>> roughage. Pasture, unfortunately, lacks roughage. >>> >>> -Bill >>> >> >> Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 How confident are we that there is a correlation between e-coli problems and excess forage protein? Pete Let it grow. I seldom graze anything less than knee high on our farm (no grain for 12 years ). Short grass has too much protein which causes problems with MUN and BUN, plus, it takes energy to process the excess protein. Energy that could be going for milk production and/or body condition, breed back, etc. A dairy cow only needs 15% to 16% total protein. Ever checked short grass? It can easily be in the mid 20's or higher. That's a lot of extra protein for the cow to process. By letting it get some height, the protein decreases and the fiber increases which makes a much better balance for the cow. Sulfur is supposed to help build more complete proteins, so adding some sulfur to deficient soil may help. Mineral levels and biology are vital to growing high quality pasture and eliminating grain. We want the nutrition to come through the grass. I've tested pasture samples that have the energy levels of corn silage (.83 NEL) with RFQ pushing 300 and total digestibility around 80% By contrast, standard "dairy quality" hay is usually in the 160-180 RFQ range, with NEL around .60 and digestibility around 60%. Dry grass/grass mix hay would be good to supplement with lush pasture, but I would avoid pure alfalfa as it has a lot of soluble protein that causes the same problems. I have alfalfa mixed in all of my pastures as it can give drought tolerance and variety, but not as a monoculture. For those in the South, your plants will lignify faster in the heat making them less digestible. I would try different heights to figure out how tall you can go without losing quality. Also, something like Japanese millet can give some great summer grazing. Cheyenne > > That's the struggle here in the Willamette Valley, OR. Lots of rain and short green grass. You try to rotate pastures, provide good quality hay, etc and sometimes you still end up with issues. > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 what kind of cows? Â No grains, grass-fed cows. Sent from my Samsung smartphone on AT & T slbooks4me wrote: >Mark do you know anything about this farms practices? I have not seen any articles that actually go into diet, breeds, etc. I was wondering if they feed a lot of grains. > > > > >> >> One of the local small diary farms has recently had a quite serious >> potential E coli outbreak. I say potential because it well be several weeks >> before the state gets backs it testing from the samples taken at the farm . >> There is several under fifteen years old in the hospital tow with kidney >> failure and eleven others that got sick so it is quite serious. This is >> outside of portland oregon in wilsonville. >> > Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest guest Posted April 22, 2012 Report Share Posted April 22, 2012 > How confident are we that there is a correlation between e-coli problems and > excess forage protein? > > Pete It is something which probably requires more research, but unfortunately those who hold the purse strings on scientific research aren't interested in finding out. -Bill Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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