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Q: With high levels of vomitoxin in my corn and corn silage, is there anything I can feed my cows to help them?

A: The obvious solution to corn or corn silage that has high levels of vomitoxin is to not feed it, but the option of not feeding it is often impractical especially for silage. One option with corn grain is to sell the corn for another use other than feed and buy back corn that has been tested to be low in vomitoxin. The next best option is to dilute the contaminated feed or to feed it to animals that are less susceptible to the toxins. Some examples of ways to potentially dilute toxins is by blending your corn silage with high levels of toxin with another source of corn silage that is known to be lower in toxins. The same thing can be done with corn grain. Another option is to feed less corn grain and/or corn silage and replace them with other feeds like hay, haylage, and etc. When looking at using other feedstuffs to either complement your on farm feeds or to replace your contaminated feeds, remember that these can somtimes be additional sources of toxins and should be tested as well. Another way to help minimize your levels of toxins in your feeds is to harvest and store them in a manner that minimizes mold growth. If the levels of toxins in the diet are still high after we have done all that we can to minimize them, we will often times add toxin binders to the feed in an attempt to reduce the effects of the toxins. Some points to remember while dealing with toxins is that feeds can sometimes have pockets with higher levels of toxins, and toxin binders are not 100% effective. For additional information or questions, please feel free to contact me by e-mail at: akniesly@tc-feed.com or by phone at: (419) 606-5788.

-Andy Kniesly, D.V.M., Feed Nutritionist

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Calving Ease from Attica Veterinary Associates

Doing the Job the Way it should be done (Calving Ease February 2010)

Calf rearing involves many processes. Caring for newborn calves, managing colostrum, feeding, dehorning preweaned calves are all examples. Each process could have a protocol

– a written description of the process. Each protocol consists of steps in the order in which they should be done. And, each step describes an action. A clear description including

criteria that define the action in measurable terms. Read More>>

Feed More Milk without Scours (Calving Ease January 2010)

Cold weather arrives. You decide to feed more milk/milk replacer. Soon after making the change your treatable scours rate goes up too much to be acceptable. What are the differences among farms that have this problem and those that feed milk/milk replacer at higher volumes without diarrhea issues among young calves? Read More>>

Antibiotics in Milk Replacers: Changes Coming Soon (Calving Ease December 2009)
Are you feeding milk replacer to preweaned calves? Have you been using antibioticmedicated milk replacer to manage bacterial scours in calves? Soon these products will not be available in the same formulation as in the past. Read More>>

Using a tube feeder: Yes or No (Calving Ease November 2009)
Set aside for a moment the issues of the calfcare person’s competency in using an esophageal tube feeder and subsequent interest on the part of the calf in nursing from a bottle. Focus on the immunity outcome of feeding colostrum. Read More>>

To view past issues of Calving Ease from Attica Veterinary Associates, click here.

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