Some More Rumen

According to the same Stockman Grassfarmer article I posted about a few days ago, giving too much energy to a ruminant animal can be dangerous. Apparently, (I did not know this) the reason we harvest feed lot animals at 150 days, is because they would die soon after that point from liver damage. That's right, according to this article, too much energy (sugar) will damage a ruminants liver.

The article goes on to say that dairy animals that have been fed large amounts of grain for a considerable length of time, often cannot be used in no-grain dairies. This is because their livers have been damaged so much that they could not handle the high levels of protein found in cool season pastures.

An example of this was sited involving a North American company that had talked an Argentinian, grass based dairy into dropping it's grain supplementation. Many of these cows quickly died from uric acid poisoning.

So, here is something to think about. In Europe, great care is taken when seasonally supplementing their dairy herds. They make sure that the dairy cows never receive more than five pounds of carbs per day to avoid liver damage.

Another thing to keep in mind is that it doesn't seem to matter what the source of the carbs are. Apparently, too much molasses is just as bad as too much starch (animal and human bodies turn starch into sugar. That is why if you're a diabetic, potatoes, pasta's, rice-starchy foods, are not a good idea.)

Until next time...

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