Concerns

I've been somewhat curious about Distillers Grain, leftover product from ethanol production, and the feeding of it to livestock. The claims I read are how wonderful it is to feed to cattle. I know nothing about it and probably will never feed it since I don't feed anything in a bunk, it's all open range around here, but knowing how its fed helps in understanding.<br />n<br />nKeeping this in mind the story I read about how <a href="http://www.capitalpress.info/main.asp?SectionID=67&SubSectionID=782&ArticleID=31916&TM=44956.32">Distillers Grain can cause polio in cattle</a> was very interesting. It appears the sulfur content of the Distillers Grain can be high enough to trigger acute polio which gives some symptoms similar to <acronym title="Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy">BSE</acronym>. <br />n<br />nI'm sure this is a very rare thing that can happen when feeding Distillers Grain but it is interesting to know. I knew there had to be catches to feeding Distillers Grain and here is one of them, sulfur content. What other problems are we going to find with this feed source? Maybe there are some and maybe not. We won't know until we feed enough to find out. <br />n<br />nMaybe I am to old fashioned but I am always leery of new things until they have proven themselves out. Hell, I just got into big bale systems last year because it looked like they were working good and had been around long enough to prove their worth. I know Distillers Grains of many different types aren't a new thing, but the large scale feeding of it because of the ethanol boon is, so I am approaching the whole thing with caution looking for the problems it causes and the solutions it brings. I never imagined polio was one of the problems but you learn something new everyday.<br />n<br />n<strong>Just as a cautious businessman avoids investing all his capital in one concern, so wisdom would probably admonish us also not to anticipate all our happiness from one quarter alone. Sigmund Freud</strong><br />