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With
the beginning of summer and the end of another school year, I hope
everything is going well, you’re getting sufficient rain and the grass
is green. While the need for animal feed is reduced during this time of
the year, we continue to remain busy working on new products and
programs to further benefit our customers. With this in mind, I would
like to introduce four new products that are or will soon be available
through your local Quality Co-op.
The
first new product is AFC Horizon Equine Minerals. While we all
recognize the importance of a complete mineral and vitamin supplement,
these important nutrients are sometimes overlooked when developing a
complete feeding program. Horizon Equine Minerals are designed for horse
owners who are feeding Horizon Horse Feeds. Even though most of our
Horizon Horse Feeds contain minerals and vitamins, Horizon Equine
Minerals will fill in the gaps to provide a superior mineral/vitamin
program to your horse. While this product will mostly benefit horses
that are being fed Horizon All-Grain 10% or Horizon All-Grain 11%, it
will also benefit those being fed Horizon Excel, Horizon Champions
Choice, Horizon Mare & Foal and Horizon Senior.
This
supplement not only contains macro minerals such as calcium, phosphorus,
sodium, chloride, magnesium, potassium and sulfur, but it also contains
micro minerals such as zinc, iron, copper, selenium, iodine and
manganese. Horizon Equine Minerals also offers a complete vitamin mix
containing Vitamins A, D and E along with the B Vitamins consisting of
biotin, choline, niacin and riboflavin. Another benefit of this mineral
is the addition of chelated minerals along with molasses to assure
adequate consumption of the product. This product should be available to
horse producers by the middle of June.
Another
new mineral product is AFC Apple Flavored Deer Mineral. This
mineral will be available in 50 pound bags and will contain salt and
calcium along with a high percentage of phosphorus and magnesium for
antler development. This flavored supplement also contains adequate
levels of trace minerals and vitamins to allow deer to function at the
highest nutritional plane possible. Just as in horses, a complete
mineral/vitamin supplement is required for deer to perform at an optimum
level. As mentioned earlier, this supplement will be apple flavored to
assure that deer are consuming sufficient amounts of the product to get
the added benefits of a complete mineral and vitamin supplement. This
product should be available by July 1.
In
our feed line, we have developed two new products that are both already
available through your local Quality Co-op. The first is a 22% Mini
Laying Pellet that is designed for laying hens that have a higher
requirement for additional protein. The most common use of these pellets
seems to be in the game bird area for those producers who own game hens.
We are also seeing a use for this feed with producers who keep birds in
cages and those who are looking for maximum egg production from their
birds. Another possible benefit of this feed is it should reduce feather
loss by providing additional levels of Methionine to your birds. This
feed is a mini-pellet for use with smaller birds.
The
other new feed is T.P. Goat Feed. This 15% protein pelleted goat
feed is high fiber with over 20% of the feed coming from alfalfa meal.
This higher level of fiber will improve the overall digestive health of
your goats without sacrificing growth and performance. It also contains
additional levels of grain and a complete mineral/vitamin supplement to
assist in the overall growth and performance of your goat herd. T.P.
Goat Feed is medicated with an ionophore (Bovatec®) for feed efficiency
and coccidiosis control. It is already in use on several farms and
producers seem more than satisfied by the quality of the product and the
performance of the feed.
The
final item I would like to discuss is not a feed, but a program. We have
improved our Youth/Animal Scholarship Program. A new feature will
be that FFA and 4-H members who show goats will now be able to
participate. Additional rules have been implemented to help improve the
overall quality and efficiency of the program.
It
offers students several choices when selecting products for their
cattle, pig, sheep or goat program. Also added will be a rebate to your
local FFA or 4-H chapter for every pound of approved feed that a student
uses during the duration of their animal health program. Another change
will be that the scholarship money will be set up in a trust fund for
the student and upon high school graduation can be used to further their
education whether it is college or technical/vocational school.
We
believe that these updates will improve a successful program that has
already paid more than $10,000 in scholarship money since its inception.
The new changes will be introduced this summer for students who will
start their animal science program this fall.
I
hope that some of the ideas discussed in this article will benefit you
in some manner. We are always looking to create markets for needed
products and believe that the four new products, as well as the youth
program, will be well received and offer the end user a quality product
for a fair price.
If
I can ever be of assistance to you in any manner, please do not hesitate
to contact me at jimmyh@alafarm.com.
Until next month, when I hope we have plenty of moisture and a good
first cutting of hay.
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