Gossypol!

[DOC HARRIS]

I'll bet if some guy drove up to your place and hopped out of his car and said "Hi! My name is So-and-So, and I am from the U.S. Dept of Agriculture. I am here to help you improve your bull's ability to breed by balancing his gossypol - you would invite him to vacate your establishment at the end of a three-tined hay fork!

Well, if I am right, read this, and then check out the article by Dr. Stephen Blezinger on CattleToday's Home Page on "Proper Bull Management Enhances Fertility."

Who would'a thunk it?

"Nutrition and feeding practice can have a profound affect on fertility. Fertility can be negatively affected by feeding certain materials such as excessive gossypol, the pigment in cotton products (cottonseed meal, cottonseed hulls, etc.). This does not mean that cottonseed by-products cannot be fed to bulls, only that they should be fed at moderate levels â€" no more than 3-4 lbs of cottonseed by-product feeds per head per day. The good news about this situation is that it is reversible. Research has shown that bulls with poor fertility due to the consumption of excessive gossypol will regain normal fertility several weeks after the gossypol is removed from their diet. Additionally, several studies have been done with vitamin E, an antioxidant and commonly included nutrient in feeds and mineral supplements, in combination with gossypol. Not only did the vitamin E protect against gossypol, it appeared to be favorable toward bull fertility. Other research into alleviating stress effects are being done with vitamin A, C and the trace mineral selenium."

DOC HARRIS

 

[C HOLLAND]

Doc, with the minds we have in our Univ today we make changes daily to what was TABOO yesterday. I posted the below because the study of gossypol has been going on for many years and we may even be able to cut out the midle man (COW)for a good source of protein for man. Just kidding about the cow as the middle man, but the research that our tax dollars pay for has a major impact on our lives in more ways than we could ever realize.



http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070112.htm

 

[DOC HARRIS]

Doc, with the minds we have in our Univ today we make changes daily to what was TABOO yesterday. I posted the below because the study of gossypol has been going on for many years and we may even be able to cut out the midle man (COW)for a good source of protein for man. Just kidding about the cow as the middle man, but the research that our tax dollars pay for has a major impact on our lives in more ways than we could ever realize.



http://www.ars.usda.gov/is/pr/2007/070112.htm

-Thank you, CH for the update. With the "INFORMATION AGE" flooding our time and knowledge levels, we are obligated to absorb as much as we can, not only for ourselves, but for our society.

Makes us realize how important OUR efforts are at production of foodstuffs, and why we must learn as much as we can to help ourselves.

DOC HARRIS

 

[C HOLLAND]

Doc, we owe to our children for generations to come to do as much research as we can to help this planet we live on to continue to be good for future growth of food to feed the world and adapt to environmental changes. The threat of global warming and contamination of our drinking water and the land we grow the crops on is becoming a bigger problem each day and we must learn how to correct the sins of the past and how to manage our resources for the future.