Non-GMO Alfalfa pellets

["SPIKE"]

I added this info to the "everyone should watch this" thread, but though it may be good to mention seperately for those interested that might miss it in the other thread. I would hate to eleminate alfalfa pellets totally, since my hay is a mixed grass. This is what the Tennessee Farmer's Co-op in my area sells

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

I spoke with Brent and David is the owner. They have a 5000 acre farm and grow Non-GMO alfalfa. You may be able to find a distributor in your area. They have a Certified Facility SAFE FEED/SAFE FOOD label on the bag, which I learned has to do with the facility more than the products themselves. I suggested to Brent that if they really sell non-GMO they should add that to the label. They do spray crops, but also have a totally organic line.

SPIKE

[Backfourty,MI.]

I'm going to check at my feed store & see if there alfalfa pellets are GMO free. I can get Standlee at TSC though & they are GMO free according to the Watch this thread.

[Crazy Farmgirl]

Because the alfalfa is newly released as GMO crop, first plantings would have been last year, there are probably still a lot that are GMO free as they will be older stands but the future may see more.

[mammabooh]

To agree with what Crazy Farmgirl just mentioned...

Around here, alfalfa is a long-term crop, not something that is planted new every year. So, a farmer plants alfalfa or a mixture, and then cuts and bales it for years. I don't think there is anyone around here that plants, harvests once, and then tills it under and starts over.

[Sherry in Iowa]

Our biggest supplier lives 5 miles from us. Last year he was going to plant a new field of alfalfa. Hubby asked him if it was GMO alfalfa. Now this guy and his brother are BIG farmers. They are NOT organic farmers. Know what he said? NO GMO ALFALFA will be planted on any of our farms. It's nasty and we don't want to open that pandora's box. Well..coming from this guy..we were shocked. If HE doesn't want it...something is up.

[KrisD]

True mammabooth but for many of us the only option is Grainland Alfalfa pellets made by Purina. So who knows where or what it was grown with. I personally am using Timothy pellets that way no risk of GMOs and I'm not burning my does out with too much protein.

[haypoint]

never mind.

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by haypoint

While a great many acres of alfalfa are regularlly sprayed with insecticides, few are sprayed with herbicides and there is no GMO alfalfa currently on the market. It just came available in the middle of last summer and if planted the moment it was available, it wouldn't be ready for harvest until next summer.

Well I hope that is true because I just bought 2 bags of Standlee and I was afraid it might be GMO.

[harvestmoonfarm]

Standlee is non-GMO this year, but stated they may have to change next year. Several of us have written to them and signed a petition. I feed Standlee pellets to all of my goats and they love them.

[motdaugrnds]

I'm feeding Standlee too; and would hate to see them go GMO

[CaliannG]

~smiles~ 5 years.

That is about how long a stand of alfalfa is good for before you have to plow it under and grow something else for a while.

That being said, alfalfa is not a real worry. Round-up ready alfalfa is rather silly, because the plant itself is fairly good at rabid growth and choking everything else out. Who wants to bother with the expense and labor using an herbicide on something that, due to its very nature, gets rid of weeds and such on its own? Especially something that is a perennial?

Now, if they came up with a Bt type alfalfa that, say, repelled or killed alfalfa weevils and blister beetles? The South would go absolutely ape-poop crazy over it, and you WOULD have to worry about a huge influx of GMO alfalfa.

Heck, if that happened, *I'd* be tempted to buy the stuff and seed it!

[PrettyPaisley]

Contact Standlee and see what they use to bind the pellets together. Southern States uses soybean oil (GMO no doubt) so we don't buy SS alfalfa. My money says Standlee does, too.

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by PrettyPaisley

Contact Standlee and see what they use to bind the pellets together. Southern States uses soybean oil (GMO no doubt) so we don't buy SS alfalfa. My money says Standlee does, too.

Oil does not contain the gene. The gene is a protein, and the oil has no protein.

[KrisD]

http://articles.mercola.com/sites/ar...tains-gmo.aspx

[KrisD]

So according to the article above if a farmer plants his GMO alfalfa this year and it blooms this summer the pollen from this very newly planted crop can easily contaminate the 5 years old stand of Alfalfa being cut and baled this summer. So my non GMO alfalfa is now GMO even though it's 5 years old. That means there is no promise of non GMO alfalfa very shortly.
The pollen can travel 5 miles! That also means when I buy alfalfa honey I could be eating GMO honey now.

[CaliannG]

You may have lost out on the honey long ago, Kris. Many beekeepers rent hives to farmers to improve pollination. I know lots of corn farmers rent hives to improve their yield. And while the honey may say "Alfalfa", it is really difficult to tell the bees that they aren't allowed to harvest from anything else., so if a corn field is next door to that alfalfa field the hives happen to be in......

~chuckles~ All sorts of things can end up in honey. One beekeep got a shock when he harvested a bunch of bright blue honey. Seems he lived next door to a Mars factory and one year they had to trash a bunch of their blue M&M's.........

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by KrisD

So according to the article above if a farmer plants his GMO alfalfa this year and it blooms this summer the pollen from this very newly planted crop can easily contaminate the 5 years old stand of Alfalfa being cut and baled this summer. So my non GMO alfalfa is now GMO even though it's 5 years old. That means there is no promise of non GMO alfalfa very shortly.
The pollen can travel 5 miles! That also means when I buy alfalfa honey I could be eating GMO honey now.

If alfalfa is left to bloom before being hayed, something is seriously wrong with the farmers timing. And no, your existing alfalfa will not suddenly become gm. Its offspring (seed) may get a tiny fraction, but your existing plants do not change into gm, even if a gm crop was right beside or mixed in the same field as yours.

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by farmerDale

Oil does not contain the gene. The gene is a protein, and the oil has no protein.

So corn oil, cottonseed oil and canola oil have no gmo's in them?
Even though the video's and articles say they do and it even went as far as a lawsuit?

[farmerDale]

Originally Posted by Minelson

So corn oil, cottonseed oil and canola oil have no gmo's in them?
Even though the video's and articles say they do and it even went as far as a lawsuit?

Correct. At least in the case of canola. I honestly can not speak to the others. But canola oil is gm free, because canola oil has no protein, and the gene is a protein. Here is a thing: Dubai imports raw canola seed, crushes it, and ships the oil to gm panicked Europe. No questions asked.

If I showed you a video that explained why organic grain farming is no sustainable and less productive by FAR than conventional farming, would you believe it? Probably not. Our pre-conceived notions often win the day in what we see. Thing is, there is a lot of stuff on this internet. Not all of it is true. In this case, if they are stating canola was created through gm methods, and that their is gm material in the oil: Well I am afraid to have to inform you, that is an absolute lie.

And you know how that goes. When you realize one thing is incorrect, and blatantly lied about, you have to begin to wonder about their other fantastical claims.

[Minelson]

Originally Posted by haypoint

Lots of stuff in the video is not true. But since none of it is goat related, we best not discuss it. I've posted what sugar is and there's no GMO in that. Same for refined oils.

Check it out yourself, but if it isn't goat related (who is feeding oil to goats?) it shant be discussed.

Well PrettyPaisly brought up that oil may be used as a binder for alfalfa pellets. I think it is goat related. And the first thing we grab when a goat is bloated is oil.
I just looked at my Standlee bag and it says ''ingredients: sun cured Idaho grown noxious weed free alfalfa hay forage''. I would think that would mean that there is no oil in it? But maybe weed killer to keep it noxious weed free.