08/10/2022
*Feeding Strategies to avoid entrotoximia*
‐-----------------------------------------------------------------
Smart feeding strategies will also enable you to limit the potential for entrotoximia to affect your herd or flock. Since the causative bacteria proliferate in the intestine in response to ingestion of abnormally high levels of starch, sugar, or protein, you need to be careful how you feed certain feedstuffs that contain high levels of these nutrients, such as grains, silage or haylage, lush pasture, milk or milk replacer, and protein supplements. Complete feeds – such as pellets designed to be fed to induce gain in lambs or kids – can also trigger this disease if fed in excess.
When feeding these high-risk feedstuffs, divide the daily allotment for each animal into as many small feedings as is feasible (say, three to four feedings), rather than providing such feeds in a single, large meal. It is also advisable to feed roughages such as hay before feeding these higher-risk feeds, simply to allow the animals to become full on hay beforehand. This helps to limit the potential for overeating on high-risk feedstuffs, such as grain.
Always make feed changes slowly. If you plan to increase the amount of grain fed to a flock or herd, always do so in gradual increments over several days. This helps the bacteria in the stomach to accommodate to the diet, making it less likely that the troublesome bacteria will get access to the nutrients.
Make sure that you watch your animals for signs of dominance by one or more individuals – they can boss the others away from the grain and overeat; alternatively, the shy animals can hold back from feeding and become so hungry that they overeat. Divide your herd or flock as necessary, and make sure to provide an adequate number of feeding sites or feeder space to enable all animals an equal chance to eat.
For animals being turned out onto pasture after being fed hay or other stored feeds, a conservative thumb rule is to begin by allowing only about 10 minutes of grazing time on the first day. Double this with each subsequent day – it will take about a week for them to work up to a full 24 hours on pasture.
Like 10 min on fist day, 20, 40, 80, 160, 320 and 640 min on day 7
