GMO crops killing dairy cattle ?????

linn · #21 02/08/13, 09:14 AM

Marc, has it been dry in your area? One our farmer friends had some of his beef cows abort after he turned them out on a cornstalk field. They tested the cornstalks and found that they contained an abnormally high percent of nitrates in them because of the dry weather. I found some info about drought stressed cornstalks on the net. If he is feeding them silage that may be it. I don't know if it would affect the grain.

Judy in IN · #22 02/08/13, 09:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by linn

Just wait until he tells you to shut up because he doesn't like what you are saying.

AH! The beauty of the ignore feature is that I can't see him telling me to shut up, so there you go--Nirvana!

I don't have to read pm's, either.

**Ross** · #23 02/08/13, 09:58 AM

Yes the moratorium (not ban) on GMO Monsanto threads was just for selected boards and I am pretty sure its just HQ.

Lazy J · #24 02/08/13, 10:01 AM

What about high nitrates in the corn silage? The drought may have caused high levels in the corn which is not good for cattle.

Judy in IN · #25 02/08/13, 10:13 AM

There was a problem in drought areas with prussic acid killing cows.

I don't hear a lot about dying cows, but I doubt a farmer would be very proud of that.

I DO hear about heifers and cows not taking, even after being bred numerous times. Eventually they ship them. Who knows if it's mineral or vitamin deficiency or GMO's blocking the uptake of nutrients.

Who is going to fund research to find the culprit?

Lazy J · #26 02/08/13, 10:24 AM

I sure hope the farmer has a good team helping him discover the problems with his herd. In theses situations egos sometimes interfere with the investigation. The Veterinarian, Nutritionist, Herdsman, and everyone else involved in this farm need to work together to find the problem.

I don't discount that the GMO crop MIGHT contribute, but the fact that there are not widespread cattle, pigs, chicken deaths doesn't give much credence to that theory.

What about stray voltage? Did they use a new inoculant for their silage? How is their hay supply? Has the supplier of the feed ingredients been included in the investigation? Have all of the feed ingredients been tested?

tab · #27 02/08/13, 10:42 AM

The Cornell Cooperative Extension had a recent artcle about Bt gmo corn loosing the effectiveness against corn root worms. Bt used to considered organic, iirc. The point is, not all gmo is the same. Apparently not that well thought out, either.

The gmo debate reminds me of when the propaganda was out about feeding animal protein to herbavores. Of course one of the problems was mad cow. There are enough scientists in countries like Denmark that question gmo that make me think that if it were without consequences, it could be proven. Guess it depends on the level of proof demanded.

I hope the farmer in the op gets answers. He sounds like one of a dying breed. Sad, as the small holder that took even one death personally has pretty much gone by the wayside where I live.

haypoint · #28 02/08/13, 11:54 AM

From Cornell Extension:

Plant a hybrid with a different Bt toxin Plant a stacked hybrid with two Bt toxins
http://www.ccejefferson.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/08/February-2012.pdf

ycanchu2 · #29 02/08/13, 12:02 PM

Not to offend the dairy producers on here, however, unless you are running a grassfed dairy....you are pushing against nature in more than one way.
First of all, cattle are herbivores...their natural diet is grass, hay. So feeding corn, SBmeal etc.in large quantities circumvents their natural diet.
Secondly, feeding a cow so that it gives huge volumes of milk is unnatural, if you tried to raise a calf on that same cow giving her the large amount of feed, the calf would die because of too much milk, scours etc.
Beef cow/calf producers have that same problem today...those who try to feed their cows like dairy cows.....a lot have heavy death losses in their baby calves.
Most dairy producers raise their own replacement heifers, so several generations of cows can be raised in 30 or 40 years, so if they are given an unnatural diet this is being passed on to each subsequent generation.
It took a long time to create the dust bowl, so there is probably a tipping point out in the future for unnatural practices. JMHO

**Ross** · #30 02/08/13, 12:03 PM

I dunno I've fed BT and RR corn for years and not noticed much difference from OP corn from years ago. Hardly scientific I know and I do support further study on the topic, but there are some pretty extreme and polarized positions out there with little real world experience. Could be this dairy farm is the start of something or maybe the cows have some sensitive genetics, I hope they find the problem though!

tab · #31 02/08/13, 12:14 PM

Judy, thanks for that link. After almost thirty years of working with children, that explains much of what I have seen with extreme allergies, autism, etc. Also might explain why hfc is so very toxic.

linn · #32 02/08/13, 12:27 PM

As far as I can tell Marc never claimed to know that GMO was killing cattle. He put a ? with the title of the thread and then just presented the facts. I don't know that GMO is responsible for what happened to these cattle, but I do know from documented articles that the U.S. government does not always keep the public posted on research results. Many drugs have been released with the approval of the FDA and later have been found to cause drastic side effects.

springvalley · #33 02/08/13, 12:37 PM

As some of you on here may have not read all the posts, If you knew this dairy man, he will move heaven and earth to find out what is wrong here. The difference with this man and most dairy farmers is, he has bottomless pockets. He is not cheap, he is not frugal, he is smart. He will find out what it is, and may allready know. You don`t understand this man probably has every state Vet. plus many others working on this. I think he has irigation on his farm , so I don`t thinkthe dry weather would be a factor. And if it were, they would have cought that allready. These vets. will be the best money can buy, and they will find it. And I will let you all know when I know, could be maybe the genetics of this certain herd of cattle, can`t take a certain gene in a GMO crop, but then again this is just speculation. I will update you as i can. > Blessings Marc

Judy in IN · #34 02/08/13, 01:03 PM

Tab, you're welcome. Now do what I did and send it to everyone you know.

Autism was something else that was unheard of when I was a youngster. You can almost see the difference in the generations. My Gfather's generation stayed pretty sharp until the end, people in my Dad's generation start to show a few disease trends. You get down to my generation and high blood pressure, heart problems, Alzheimer's, obesity, joints, digestive problems, thyroid, etc, etc, etc. my daughter's generation showed an increase in all health problems.

We are at the top of the food chain and we're like the eagles and DDT. Eagles didn't eat sprayed crops; they ate the fish that swam in the run-off from those crops. They still almost went extinct.

Looks like my heifers will have to be grass-fed. It's a sad thing when you can't trust the food supply.

I'm setting up an aquaponics system this year. I'm thinking about incorporating fodder raising with it.

tab · #35 02/08/13, 01:15 PM

I just saw a fodder aquaponics system in a catalog. How very interesting. I have trouble sending links but have two families in mind in particular on the video, the title will suffice.

For human food, the co-op cannot be beat for the variety of non gmo and organic. Will have to check out the site, nongmoshopguide.com to see what else there is.

HP, thanks for proving one of my original points, cannot navigate on the phone like the desk top. That doesn't look like the article I read but to have to go from one to more than one form of Bt shows resistance of the corn rootworm. Resistance was the word used in the article I read. Resistance to what was a frontline organic insecticide is bad. Kind of like antibiotic resistant microbes are bad, i.e. MRSA. I am guessing you were trying to discredit me on some level, feel free.

AngieM2 · #36 02/08/13, 01:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judy in IN

Well, it might not be the corn. It might be that fungus that they've discovered where Roundup is used.

We're not supposed to discuss GMO on HT, though. We can discuss politics and religion, but GMO's are too hot to handle.

It started on the Homesteading Questions forum, and the moratium will be lifted soon. But the BE NICE rule be watched.

it never was a complete site moratorium.

FarmerDavid · #37 02/08/13, 02:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Judy in IN

Well, it might not be the corn. It might be that fungus that they've discovered where Roundup is used.

We're not supposed to discuss GMO on HT, though. We can discuss politics and religion, but GMO's are too hot to handle.

What fungus is this ive never heard anything about that.

Lazy J · #38 02/08/13, 02:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by FarmerDavid

What fungus is this ive never heard anything about that.

This is from a series of lectures given by Dr. Huber, an emeritus professor from Purdue University, where he claims that there is a "new organism" growing in fields sprayed with glyphosate. He stated that the organism was too small to be seen via electron microscopes, but it is there.

haypoint · #39 02/08/13, 03:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ycanchu2

Not to offend the dairy producers on here, however, unless you are running a grassfed dairy....you are pushing against nature in more than one way.
First of all, cattle are herbivores...their natural diet is grass, hay. So feeding corn, SBmeal etc.in large quantities circumvents their natural diet.
Secondly, feeding a cow so that it gives huge volumes of milk is unnatural, if you tried to raise a calf on that same cow giving her the large amount of feed, the calf would die because of too much milk, scours etc.
Beef cow/calf producers have that same problem today...those who try to feed their cows like dairy cows.....a lot have heavy death losses in their baby calves.
Most dairy producers raise their own replacement heifers, so several generations of cows can be raised in 30 or 40 years, so if they are given an unnatural diet this is being passed on to each subsequent generation.
It took a long time to create the dust bowl, so there is probably a tipping point out in the future for unnatural practices. JMHO

Corn and soybeans are good food for cows, but they aren't super foods. They cannot account for the gains in milk production we see today. Artificial Insemination, 500 years of careful selection, more comfortable housing all play a part to this improvement.
I don't know of any beef guys that are losing calves due to too much milk and I don't think there are many dairy farmers turning thei calves loose on a 100 pound a day holstein.
How far back you want to go? Man hasn't been a corn eater for very long. Most folks didn't have access to fields of grains either, until more recently. You giving up sugar, too.
It didn't take long to create the dust bowl. We plowed up the prarie and had a couple dry years, suddenly the dirty Thirties were upon us.

haypoint · #40 02/08/13, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Lazy J

This is from a series of lectures given by Dr. Huber, an emeritus professor from Purdue University, where he claims that there is a "new organism" growing in fields sprayed with glyphosate. He stated that the organism was too small to be seen via electron microscopes, but it is there.

http://www.i-sis.org.uk/USDA_scientist_reveals_all.php