BREAD – good and EVIL when fed to live stock

Most people would believe that feeding bread to cattle and horses won’t do them any harm and a lot of people would have heard that there are dairy farmers who do just that.
BUT and it is a huge BUT as the farmers that feed bread will testify, bread fed incorrectly is DEADLY.

Dairy’s whose feed systems are based on bread will have introduced their animals to it gradually AND will also feed supplements that help their cattle cope with the bread feed.
Lets face it bread, whether brown, white, old or fresh is a grain product and as such will cause problems in cattle and horses.
In horses grain overload- too much grain based feed- bread, chook feed, pre mixes etc will usually cause colic as the first symptom and then can cause founder (where the feet swell, get hot and in very bad cases the hooves will drop off resulting in the animal dying) and a few other nasty problems.  The little fat pony that lives near the school yard and the kids feed it their lunches is a perfect example and any vet in the industry for any length of time has attended or at least heard of these instances.
In cattle an overdose of the grain based feed gets into the rumen (first stomach) and causes an acidosis- like a very, very bad heartburn.  This very acidic rumen results in all the good bacteria that cattle need to digest their food being killed off and therefore results in a whole host of problems after the initial “colic”.
These are very serious problems in these animals and it doesn’t take much bread to cause a problem.  Treatment once you recognize or suspect your animal has over indulged in a grain based feed needs to be swift to be effective and to prevent long term damage.
So the next time you feel like throwing that stale half a loaf to the lovely horse/cow down the road you may literally be killing it with kindness.