Post by Joann on Jan 11, 2008 11:11:58 GMT -5
Carol (Maggiesherd) PM'd me asking how much grain we can safely feed w/o risking encouraging E.coli:0157, the bad kind. Like many of us, myself included, she finds that total elimination of grain results in discouragingly low production. In my answer I said that a definitive answer is elusive becuase of the many factors involved. But that grain feeding of cattle is not a new idea. It was practiced by the pharoahs of ancient Egypt, whereas emergence ofthe dangerous form of E.coli is a recent event.
Carol plans to look for a Biblical reference to the feeding of grain to livestock.
Here is the remainder of my response:
When you find a Biblical quote, please share. I know there are several references to corn as animal feed in the Bible. The term "corn" as used in older writings including the Bible refers to what we would call grain, or in England they call small grain, such as wheat, barley, rye, emmers etc., never to maize, which we now call corn. Corn/maize was unknown in the Old World before settlement by Europeans in the Americas.
E. coli:0157 as a threat emerged in response to feedlot practices. The organism itself was first described about 1933 but was seldom found in cattle feces and never as a dominant overgrowth until recently. It was always kept in check by the essentially harmless dominant E. coli species. E. coli:0157, of which a number of strains now exist, has now been isolated from manure of dairy cows in confined operations. I believe no unchallenged finds have occurred in organically run dairies where the cows graze.
I say unchallenged because the sad fact is that directors of departments of health in many states have stated as one of their goals to shut down all raw milk sales (and even home consumption) and have been accused of falsifying evidence.
It is my conviction that none of us is ever going to discover the dangerous form of E.coli in our family cows. Even cattle which have been shedding it heavily cease to do so following as few as five days during which hay is the dominant feed.
This simple maneuver has been suggested as an obvious mode for eliminating E.col:0157 from feedlot cattle but is not of interest to feedlot management people for the simple reason that a) hay costs a lot more than the grain mixtures which are massively subsidized by USDA and b) everything fed in any confined feeding operation must be capable of being delivered via a system of augers. Consequently, efforts at control are being focused on finding vaccines administered to animals or irradiation of meat at the packing plant and of course warning labels on meat packaging. In other words, making it our problem rather than theirs.
Joann