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More mycotoxins expected in new crop feed

An expert on mycotoxins says farmers will likely have more problems with new crop feed.  Alexandra Weaver with Alltech says for corn, “I would still expect the DON (Deoxynivalenol) mycotoxin, vomitoxin, and aflatoxin.”  She’s also concerned about the impact of white mold in soybeans.

Weaver says the weather was a big factor in many regions.  “We saw a lot of drought in some areas, a lot of extreme weather stress in others, and then now there’s some late-season rains and the hurricanes and all of these different weather patterns play into these mycotoxins.”

Weaver advises farmers to test every part of the ration, both when ensiling and when feeding it out.  And, that includes feed brought into the farm such as distillers dried grains.  “DDGS (Distillers dried grains with solubles) samples we’ve seen recently in our 37-plus lab at Alltech really have had very high levels of multiple mycotoxins, I think because that process of making DDG’s concentrates the mycotoxins and they aren’t necessarily made from the best corn.”

Weaver says farmers should carefully consider if and how feed with mycotoxins is used.  She says even minimal changes in feed quality can have a big impact on an animal’s production over time.

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