LOL..we were getting so many questions about how we were getting enough calcium into them... I knew I didn't know enough about GMO to explain my decision tp stop feedong them....just knew ENOUGH to NOT want to feed it/eat it...once Jess got pregnant with Zade...knew I didn't want GMOs as part of His food...so we got serious about it... I've always gardened with heirloom --OP seed,...so why not GMO free dairy too? the herd's overall improvement really tells me it was the way to go. I have also been wheat free myself, since my brain bleed/surgery...feeling much better...less joint pain...gut issues..brain fog gone..

susie. mo ozarks

So now when we have these questions where kiddings are off a various different problems are we going to ask if GMO food is being fed? Would that be a good question? I asked on this thread and seem to be being ignored. Was it a stupid question? or rude or anything?
I feel like a dork now.
http://www.homesteadingtoday.com/liv...rmalities.html

Actually, I wanted to ask that too, but was afraid of any backlash.

Sure...I'll be the guinea pig :rolleyes:

LOL, I think we are just so gun shy about talking about it, that its going to end up constrained here. Which is okay. This is the GMO thread. So maybe we should be asking what people think about the possibilities of such problems seen in that thread, here in this one as related to GMO feeds.

Well after watching that video I feel like it should be as common a question as when was the last time wormed with what how much. Especially if it a herd wide abnormality. :)

Honestly, Min, it's because no one really knows.

That's the trouble when you have a dearth of peer-reviewed, independent studies...you don't know.

Bt proteins from GMOs have been found in the bloodstreams of pregnant women. Okay. What happened then?

Ummmmmmm.........

We don't know the effect of GMOs on cellular development and reproduction. We don't know how they might/do affect developing fetuses. We don't know....

Honestly, we don't know much about them at all, except that they make farmer's jobs a lot easier and they result in less use of pesticides/herbicides in the environment.

But, it's one of those things.....you think "less pesticides/herbicides = good, right? Save the environment! Yay!" But unfortunately, we just don't know a lot about how these thing effect those that consume them. I might also add that there have been a LOT of things that we *thought* were good at the time...like saying nearly eliminating mosquitoes, and therefore significantly reducing malaria and a number of other serious diseases spread by them. I am ALL FOR not getting bitten by mosquitoes and reducing the spread of debilitating disease.

But DDT had some unintended consequences that we didn't really foresee, didn't it?

Well I guess after watching that video my first suggestion to the OP in that thread would be to watch the video and discontinue any GMO feeds and see if that helps for next kidding season. And then yell ''Hey!! we are talking about you over here!!!!'' and hopefully they will come on over :)

I feel the same way Michele. When one poster asked about feed and if he alfalfa mix was a good price I felt like I had to say something but I don't want to get flamed. So I just said "alfalfa is GMO if that bothers you".
In the last 20 years we have had an explosion of Autism and childhood food allergies, I don't think that's coincidence. I believe (no I can't prove it) that GMO foods is making kids more sensitive to things. They've already shown a link in kids with Autism have gut issues that are unique to Autism. I also know more kids with food allergies then I ever have in my entire life.
My husband is lactose intolerant, has irritable bowel and is a high risk for colon cancer. There is NO family history of any of it. My husband drank soy milk for 20 years, and drank tons of stuff with High Fructose Corn Syrup. Yes I think there is a connection I haven't figured out yet.

I do think it's okay to ask people who are having problems with their goats if their feed is GMO. It may not tell us anything now but we may start seeing a patern in the next few years. After all there are very few studies on goats and that's why we se so many drugs off label but from years of trial and error connections were made and now we know a whole lot more then we did even 10 years ago. We need to ask the questions to get the information for tomorrow.

Susie I too wish you had shared that information. I know it's a tricky subject but we like to learn from others.

all I've been going on...is a gut feeling, that GMOs are not going to end up good for us, for our kid (human or goat)..the birth of the grandbaby just really made me make some real choices for him, for me..for the herd. hopefully it won't be too little to late

susie, mo ozarks

This thread makes me want to buy up an entire state and move all of the good-neighbor types at HT there. We'd have some very rich hay and grain farmers in our state! :)

Hubby and I bought a gravity wagon today. It's a tinker toy compared to the ones the big farmers use, but it will hold 100 bushels of barley or corn. Now to find one more....


The aquaponics/fodder/pit greenhouse project marches on.

Hey yarrow..that you started is so much more than most people do. I think, I pray, that more studies will start recognizing that this has to be looked into more. If it's not good for animals..it won't be good for us and vise versa.

I hope this brings out a bunch of ideas. I hope that we can get a fodder conversation going that has renewed interest with these conversations about GMOs. I really want to start the fodder..but I am someone that needs to be talked through it a bit before I jump in.

It's never easy to wake up..it's never easy to change. I applaud you. And I hope that like minded people on this goat forum can share and bolster each other when we need it. It's not easy going against the tide..but I think it's worth it. Congrats!

aranoid over everything. My poor barnner than animals. So oth
 

I'm going nuts here. Now I am getting paranoid. Other than spending more $$$'s on my barn animals feed and our food...I feel as though I should dump my kitchen cupboards in the garbage. How did it get this bad.?? I will start a little at a time..check things I buy from now on more carefully. Are we all doomed.?? And is it too late for us old timers..??:awh::duel:

I don't honk it's ever too late. The body can do amazing things if we give it the right tools.
I said the same that I would start small and not panic, then I opened my pantry to get a snack and instantly lost my appetite, now I'm cleaning out the pantry...

I have to say that the upside is I buy a whole lot less stuff at the store now since most everything is GMO.

That really is a great thought, even if it is not possible. It is a grand thing to think about.:clap:

SPIKE

What are the most modified seeds/plants?
Corn, soybeans, sugar beets, and alfalfa pellets are the ones I have seen mentioned most
How wide spread is the use of GMO technology.
And I do not mean hybrid vegetables. That is not quite the same, is it?


I guess Corn seems to be the biggest problem, since it contains its own pesticide. Or am I mistaken? How have the other plants been modified?

I am not going to panic and change my whole world over night, but I will be making some changes. I can easily eleminate corn from the diet of the chickens and American Guinea Hogs. Goats do not get corn, unless there has been some mixed into the pellet mix! It may cost a bit more.

I am not sure what to do about the pelleted feed yet. It is an easy way to get extra vitamins and supplements to all the different animals. I do somewhat trust the co-op feed makers to be adding the proper additives to the different feeds to get each different animal the things they need to be healthy. (Lay pellets, swine feed, different goat feeds) I will be trying to get further info from the co-op feed mill about all the different by-products, roughage products,forage products, etc.

I have confirmed with the manufacturer that the Alfalfa Pellets the co-op sell is made from a NON-GMO crop. I would hate to eliminate that from the goats.
Even if I change the goats feed to something like Yarrows mix, I would still like to add the alfalfa pellets($15.36 per 50 pounds and that includes the 9.75% TN sales tax). I would then still have to research how to add the extra vitamins and supplements.
The Alfalfa pellets I use are;

Dehy Alfalfa Mills
5935 McCall Lane
Arlington, NE
www.dehyalfalfamills.com (site is under some construction at this time)
Phone 402-478-4344

I spoke with Brent and David is the owner. You may be able to find a distributor in your area. They have a Certified Facility SAFE FEED/SAFE FOOD label on the bag. I suggested to Brent that if the really sell non-GMO they should add that to the label. They do spray crops, but also have a totally organic line.

SPIKE

Spike you are lucky to be able to get nice GMO free pellets... I asked the type/source of the pellets our local mill has... they looked at me, well... like I had two heads LOL.. they had NO CLUE where they came from (at least the guy I was talking to was clueless)...

I'm hoping that the grandbaby can be *spared* all the things my own kids were not.. being so isolated (no other kids around... his mom plans on taking care of that *in-house*.. plans for trying for number 2 this fall!).. any how, being isolated, not watching a ton of tv.. he may well have no clue what a McDonald's is!!! (seriously, the little town by us has NOTHING fast food chain wise).. the next town has a McD. a Subway, a Dairy Queen and a Sonic.. none of which do we venture to for more then an occasional quick salad.. MY kids were city raised.. fast food on every corner.. commercials galore, all their friends.. besides never getting Zade started on fast food.. we also plan on as little High Fructose Corn Syrup as possible... My daughter & son-in-law have already cut out soda pop... I'm trying hard LOL.. the hope is again, if Zade doesn't see it, he won't want it.. if he never tastes it while little, he will again, hopefully be clueless! ... with, us being wheat free...maybe he'll stay nice and lean (he is a healthy looking 8 month old, without any extra babyfat).. gone from my cupboards too are all the white processed stuff.. if you want a potato.. you get a sweet potato (that one was hard for me.. I loved me taters!).. white rice is now brown (and takes a heck of a lot longer to cook LOL)...Jess totally quit caffeine 6 months before she became pregnant.. she and hubby both took folic acid every day for those same 6 months.. she was so careful thru out her pregnancy not to take anything medication ect.. SO>>> if she worked that hard to get him here healthy.. I can't let him down, by being a yaya that feeds him garbage>.. He will grow up consuming the goat milk/cheese/ice cream ect... so cleaning up the goat feed was as much for him, as the goats (their improved condition tells me that also benefit from it!)... knowing he'll be eating farm eggs too.. the chickens also got cut off from corn & soy... they too live on oats/boss .. they free range, so lots of found foods keep them all busy... Gardening has been harder for me here in the Ozarks, then anywhere else we've ever lived... more bugs and veggie eating critters then I've ever battled before.. SO, in an attempt to not ever loose another tomato crop to pests.. we have just completed a garden room... it is on a concrete slab, 8 x 16' .. it's 8 feet tall, the frame is covered in screen AND hardware cloth (so the stupid guineas don't fall thru the screen.. LOL).. I will be growing most of my tomatoes, peppers, herbs and such in there.. I look forward to being able garden by Twinkle light (using LED christmas tree lights) in the cool of the evening.. barefoot, no stooping over, no weeding...again, changes brought about by the addition of the baby (so enjoying getting the chance to start over with a new one) the whole what we can and can't eat/buy has been a slow learning process.. sometimes hard.. but in the end, more then worth it.. baby steps..wee baby steps towards a healthier future.

susie, mo ozarks

Thank you prairiedog for posting this. I didn't know much about GMO's until I came to HT. I think it's important for everyone to educate themselves on this.

Spike you're lucky, around here the only alfalfa pellets I can get are from Purina and no telling what is in those. There is one other company that sells them but I tried 3 separate times and both times I got two jumbo coffee cans of dust at the bottom of the bag. Plus they are a lot more expensive.
So I switched to Timothey pellets so they still get protein and no GMOs. For grain we are going to go with oats and my feed dealer is getting in linseed meal.

never mind.

The GM issues are never ending:

http://www.naturalnews.com/039013_fl...irus_GMOs.html

I just sent an email to Taste of the Wild. I was thrilled to see no corn or soy on the package but then had canola oil in the ingredients. ugh. That was one of the items warned about in the video. So I asked them if there was any way they could assure me it is non GMO canola oil or I'm going to have to switch to another food. :(
My dog Boris is on antibiotics for a puncture wound...I gave him the pill in peanut butter. Turned the jar around and read the ingredients......eeee gads!!!!! into the garbage it went. This is hard!!

How do you find that out??

In the ever growing trend to buy local, I'd suggest you avoid a national pellet company and simply buy alfalfa hay from a local farmer. Ask him if he sprays his fields and if so, with what. Then read up on it. Perhaps you can get a cutting before he sprays or well afterwards. A bale fits into a food grade 55 gal. barrel. feed out as much as you need each day. Then feed the alfalfa leaf that has formed green dust in the bottom of the barrel. There shouldn't be any reason that a homesteader has to depend on processed animal feed pellets processed far away. If they can make dog food in China, I think they could make alfalfa pellets, too.

never mind.

never mind.

I shouldn't have posted a secondary source. Some can be as unreliable as someone on the internet posting an opinion ;).
Here is an older but interesting presentation on the technology:
http://dc.engconfintl.org/cgi/viewco...ontext=vaccine

never mind.

I do have an excellent source for organic alfalfa. I think this may be the key for me to stay away from the GMO's in that...now to work on the dogs and chickens! And ME!!!:shocked:

Not really...surprisingly oats are out of stock a lot. This is corn and soybean area only. With some hay. I never looked at the coops though for buying oats since I never really needed it before. Maybe it will be a different story there than at the regular feed store. I'll check it out! :)

Yarrow, you don't really HAVE to cut out soda to stop bringing HFCS into the house... All the "throwback" products that Pepsi makes are made with real sugar (cane or beet? Website doesn't specify)... Sierra Mist is also a sugar product instead of HFCS. Do you have Jones Soda in your area? It's some of the yummiest soda around, and their whole line of original flavors is made using pure cane sugar. (The zero calorie "zilch" soda uses sucralose, not sugar).

This is the response I got from Taste of the Wild

Dear Michelle,

Thank you for your inquiry. We do our best to obtain non-GMO canola. However, some people consider all canola to be GMO since the plant originally was modified to produce the quality oil that it currently produces. This happened many, many years ago and was a product of selective breeding of the best plants. The oil that we use is naturally preserved and is a quality source of omega fatty acids and energy in the diet.

Sorry ...I know this part is about dog food and not goat food...but I think the more info we have about ALL food the better so I'm sharing it all.

Thoughts???

I was going to say that Canola in and of itself is a GMO product. The plants were originally modified from the Rapeseed plant to produce a non-toxic oil. (Rapeseed, the unmodified kind, produces lots of oil, but the oil has a poisonous alkaline in it. Canola is a modified plant where the ability to produce the alkaloid has been removed.)

Not true about beet sugar or corn/soybean oil. It IS GMO and it does go through the processing.

Today I got my goats on Timothy pellets and Oats. The local feed store owner is ordering my some Linseed meal to try. Higher protein and high in selenium. If it's a reasonable price I will try it if not I'm ok with the Timothy and Oats. My bunny is now on it too. My chickens are on oats and barley now along with kitchen scraps.

I'm not sure what to do about my parrot though. He currently is on Mazuri pellets but I need to change that.

Because canola oil has no protein in it, there is no trace of the ll, or rr gene, as it is a protein. There is no protein in the oil. So don't worry, canola oil is gm free.

Canola was bred naturally with no genetic atlerations to select for low erucic acid, low glucosinolate plants. Canola was not created using any manipulation, other than selective breeding.

Canola was NOT modified from rapeseed. It was bred to lower the poor qualities of the rapeseed plant, namely erucic acid, and glucosinolates. Canola oil is among the healthiest oils known to man, with HALF the saturated fat of olive oil. It was not created using genetic alterations, but plants with the better oil qualities were selected over time...

Thank you...it's very confusing for my unscientific brain. I think I opened a can of worms for myself and need to sleep on it :)
Love the info though!!!!!!! Thank you all :)

Canola can be conventional, roundup ready, liberty link, pursuit smart, etc. There are many choices in the crop. You are 100% correct in saying that because the modified gene is a protein, it is therefore not found in the oil at all.