Jenny, we routinely include whole cottonseed (starch coated 'Easiflo') in our supplements. The whole cottonseed is mixed into the supplement at an amount of up to 25% (with corn as the main ingredient, and soybean meal according to the level of crude protein we want to supply). We also add some dried molasses, to help with palatability. If you feed the cottonseed over an extended period of time you will also need to add supplemental calcium (feed lime) to balance the phosphorus to calcium ratio. We feed the supplement at up to 2% of the animals body weight, dependent on the stage of production, along with pasture or hay.
A concern with cottonseed is the presence of free gossypol, that can induce gossypol toxicity (in milder forms it will induce sterility in males, and in its more severe form cause fragile membranes in the red blood cells). However, in ruminants free gossypol is converted into bound gossypol in the rumen. Before we started to include cottonseed in our rations we did some preliminary feeding trials with both whole cottonseed and cottonseed meal and were not able to induce sperm abnormalities and/or reduced fertility in male sheep and goats when fed at saturation levels. Please let me know if you would like more detail on our experiences with cottonseed feeding. Regards, Stephan Stephan Wildeus, Ph.D., PAS, Dipl. ACAP Associate Research Professor - Small Ruminants Agricultural Research Station Box 9061 Virginia State University Petersburg, VA 23806 Ph: 804.524.6716 Fax: 804.524.5186 =============================================== This message is from the Barbados Blackbelly Sheep mailing list (http://www.awrittenword.com/listserv/index.html). To respond to this message, send e-mail to [EMAIL PROTECTED] To unsubscribe or change your membership options, go to http://lists.coyotenet.net/mailman/listinfo/blackbelly To search the archives, go to http://www.mail-archive.com/[EMAIL PROTECTED]/
