Kalmbach Feeds Civil Suit?

[BeckyS]

[QUOTE=Underthebridge;8809937]
Just curious, lots of people keep horses with their cattle, do they just not feed at all or is there something safe?[/QUOTE]

Honestly–this is what I don’t understand.

Growing up, we always fed our calves feed with either rumensin or monensin mixed in.

We always gave the horses a little bit of calf feed every day. We never bought separate horse feed.

Never had a horse have an issue. Of course, at that time, nobody in my family realized how bad that stuff was for horses either.

So now, just a little bit of over-run in feed causes death? Blows my mind that our horses ate it every day for years and lived to be 30+.

[TrueColours]

Monensin that’s also run in cattle feed kills horses too. The mills that run medicated feed for cattle and also run horse feed,CAN"T be trusted it’s be proven time & time again.

And monensin is an ionophore chemical,and ADM had monensin poisoning in horses from contaminated feed… And ADM is still running this medicated feed for cattle,so risk is still there and not worth taking. Cattle industry still uses monensin in their feeds. As are the mills listed in the link i wouldn’t touch their feeds with a ten foot pole.

You are completely missing the point. Kalmbach has 2 separate facilities that process feed

One location has ionophore based feeds, like monensin, running through that line and one doesn’t - like the one that processes horse feed. My understanding is that NO monensin is in any feed in the facility that produces horse feed

But - and I am only getting this 2nd hand and not from Kalmbach themselves so take it for what it is worth - they do have medicated feeds, such as those with tetracycline in the feed where they are producing the horse feed, so while they have taken the necessary steps to avoid any cross contamination of any kind, I guess its possible to get a grain or two that had tetracycline on it, but NOT possible to get monensin on it as no feeds with monensin are produced in the same facility

Growing up, we always fed our calves feed with either rumensin or monensin mixed in.

We always gave the horses a little bit of calf feed every day. We never bought separate horse feed.

Never had a horse have an issue. Of course, at that time, nobody in my family realized how bad that stuff was for horses either.

So now, just a little bit of over-run in feed causes death? Blows my mind that our horses ate it every day for years and lived to be 30+.

I KNOW! Calf Manna used to be a staple to feed to horses you couldn’t get weight on. I mean literally everyone fed Calf Manna to their hard keepers. Was monensin not in there 20-30 years ago? Is that the difference???

I am not getting any of my information direct from Kalmbach so take it for what it is worth, but based on what I was told and who told it to me, I am 100% comfortable moving forward with feeding Tribute to my horses …

[IronwoodFarm]

We had something similar happen in my area except the results were more instantaneous. Of course the mill denied the error and insisted on going to trial, which they lost. There was plenty of evidence that the feed they sold was contaminated. Allegedly they have cleaned up their act, but I won’t buy any feed they have milled ever. I really don’t like how they treated the plaintiff; this sort of thing is a terrible error and should be covered by one’s business liability coverage. Dragging it out for years only left a bad taste in many people’s mouths. It would have been so much better to settle the case.

[Beckham03]

I see quite a bit of Nutrena on there…

I feed Buckeye and have sent them a message. Has anyone here ever asked them?

[tazycat]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;8810038]
You are completely missing the point. Kalmbach has 2 separate facilities that process feed

One location has ionophore based feeds, like monensin, running through that line and one doesn’t - like the one that processes horse feed. My understanding is that NO monensin is in any feed in the facility that produces horse feed

But - and I am only getting this 2nd hand and not from Kalmbach themselves so take it for what it is worth - they do have medicated feeds, such as those with tetracycline in the feed where they are producing the horse feed, so while they have taken the necessary steps to avoid any cross contamination of any kind, I guess its possible to get a grain or two that had tetracycline on it, but NOT possible to get monensin on it as no feeds with monensin are produced in the same facility

I KNOW! Calf Manna used to be a staple to feed to horses you couldn’t get weight on. I mean literally everyone fed Calf Manna to their hard keepers. Was monensin not in there 20-30 years ago? Is that the difference???

I am not getting any of my information direct from Kalmbach so take it for what it is worth, but based on what I was told and who told it to me, I am 100% comfortable moving forward with feeding Tribute to my horses …[/QUOTE]

Doesn’t matter i’ll NEVER BUY feed from any feed company that runs cattle feed. Hay and pasture for my horses, totally safe no monensin poisoning gonna happen here. If their thin in summer it isn’t gonna kill them. They’ll gain it back once riding seasons over…on alfalfa hay.

[cutter99]

[QUOTE=BeckyS;8810002]
Honestly–this is what I don’t understand.

Growing up, we always fed our calves feed with either rumensin or monensin mixed in.

We always gave the horses a little bit of calf feed every day. We never bought separate horse feed.

Never had a horse have an issue. Of course, at that time, nobody in my family realized how bad that stuff was for horses either.

So now, just a little bit of over-run in feed causes death? Blows my mind that our horses ate it every day for years and lived to be 30+.[/QUOTE]

Calves are NOT typically feed rumensin, and if your horses had ingested it you would have known it. It does not take much rumensin to kill a horse. There may have been some other drug that was added to your calf feed as a prophylactic, but I can guarantee you it was not rumensin.

[cutter99]

[QUOTE=TrueColours;8810038]
I KNOW! Calf Manna used to be a staple to feed to horses you couldn’t get weight on. I mean literally everyone fed Calf Manna to their hard keepers. Was monensin not in there 20-30 years ago? Is that the difference???

I am not getting any of my information direct from Kalmbach so take it for what it is worth, but based on what I was told and who told it to me, I am 100% comfortable moving forward with feeding Tribute to my horses …[/QUOTE]

Calf Manna has never had rumensin in it.

Please folks, make sure you know what rumensin is, what feeds it is in, how it works and how it kills horses.

[Beethoven]

I’m sorry but as a DVM some people are overreacting. If it was ionophores that killed the farms horses then there would be more farms involved as I doubt that farm bought the whole lot of food.

Really, ionophore poisoning equals a dead horse, so if any survived then I doubt it was ionophore toxicity…

I feed my horses tribute and all our hospitalized horses receive tribute unless they bring their own feed. So far, my horses have never looked better. I’m not changing based on a lawsuit that was filed with such glaring errors that existed in that one.

[JB]

Is there an FDA report that lists what KIND of medicated feed was run through prior to the horse feed?

“On or about 03/20/2015, you manufactured BG50L2BC(Lot# 78740001) on Mixer Line^attheUpper Plant, medicated feed containing ^ndjOTBiW immediately prior toUjJim (Lot #71345), non-medicated horse feed, Your records do not document that flushor clean of the mixer was conducted in between these two batch runs.”

All the jibberish is the blacked out words, so we don’t know what medication was discovered.

[tazycat]

[QUOTE=JB;8810491]
Is there an FDA report that lists what KIND of medicated feed was run through prior to the horse feed?

“On or about 03/20/2015, you manufactured BG50L2BC(Lot# 78740001) on Mixer Line^attheUpper Plant, medicated feed containing ^ndjOTBiW immediately prior toUjJim (Lot #71345), non-medicated horse feed, Your records do not document that flushor clean of the mixer was conducted in between these two batch runs.”

All the jibberish is the blacked out words, so we don’t know what medication was discovered.[/QUOTE]

Because they don’t want anyone to know what medication was discovered. On there site they claim they run two different lines one for medicated one for none medicated. So if that’s the case why are they running horse feed ,though the medicated line?? If they did that then guess, they gotta cover their butts if horses were poisoned. And feed mill i got feed from says if rumensin is added that is considered medicated feed.

[Beethoven]

[QUOTE=JB;8810491]
Is there an FDA report that lists what KIND of medicated feed was run through prior to the horse feed?

“On or about 03/20/2015, you manufactured BG50L2BC(Lot# 78740001) on Mixer Line^attheUpper Plant, medicated feed containing ^ndjOTBiW immediately prior toUjJim (Lot #71345), non-medicated horse feed, Your records do not document that flushor clean of the mixer was conducted in between these two batch runs.”

All the jibberish is the blacked out words, so we don’t know what medication was discovered.[/QUOTE]

Exactly and don’t you think if it was an ionophore then the prosecution would of submitted a non-redacted version as evidence…

[GoodTimes]

Tribute/Kalmbach has a second website www.trust-tribute.com
This statement is on that site.

Tribute Equine Nutrition products are produced in our state-of-the-art, ionophore-free manufacturing facility in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

So it appears that what the previous poster said is true. They may run medicated cattle feed through the same mill as the equine feed, BUT they do not run and feed through that mill that contain ionophores ie monensin (Rumensin).

[JB]

Right. My point is - on one hand people are assuming it’s ionophore/rumensin, and on the other, some are saying “all we know is “medicated””. But clearly the report does not let us see.

So until we know definitively that it’s NOT a problematic antibiotic, the safe course is assume it is.

[JB]

[QUOTE=GoodTimes;8810517]
Tribute/Kalmbach has a second website www.trust-tribute.com
This statement is on that site.

Tribute Equine Nutrition products are produced in our state-of-the-art, ionophore-free manufacturing facility in Upper Sandusky, Ohio.

So it appears that what the previous poster said is true. They may run medicated cattle feed through the same mill as the equine feed, BUT they do not run and feed through that mill that contain ionophores ie monensin (Rumensin).[/QUOTE]

But (and bear with me, I’m trying to figure out the conflicting statements/comments) didn’t they also state at one point they didn’t run medicated and non-medicated feeds in the same mill?

Or did they actually say the didn’t run ionophore/rumensin feeds in the same mill as horse feeds?

[GoodTimes]

[QUOTE=JB;8810523]
But (and bear with me, I’m trying to figure out the conflicting statements/comments) didn’t they also state at one point they didn’t run medicated and non-medicated feeds in the same mill?

Or did they actually say the didn’t run ionophore/rumensin feeds in the same mill as horse feeds?[/QUOTE]

In the past I believe they didn’t run medicated feeds in the same mill with the horse feed. Now they are on the FDA list as being approved for medicated feed at the Upper Sandusky mill (which is where the horse feed is milled). However, on both websites they make the statement that the horse feed is milled in an ionophore free facility. This leads me to believe that they now run medicated feed, but NOT feeds with ionophores.

The trust-tribute website appears to be brand new, I assume they created it in the wake of this civil suit.

I will continue to feed Tribute.

[WNT]

I would be happiest to hear that Kalmbach has two separate mills: one completely ionophore free, and one for ionophore-bearing feeds. Even two separate lines in the same building opens them up for a human error issue.

In regards to the FDA-approved licensed medicated mill list, what are the specifications for medicated feed? Is it any all medications, ionophore and otherwise? Do they consider things such as probiotics as medications? I couldn’t backtrack any info on that.

I remember the aftermath of the incident IronwoodFarm referred to, and know a lot of people who won’t touch that feed company with a ten-foot pole. Like Ryan Lochte, doubling down on a bad story leaves a worse taste in people’s mouths than owning a problem and taking steps to rectify it.

[fordtraktor]

Some of you don’t understand how redaction works. The defense will have requested that, not the prosecution, and the judge granted it. It isn’t the prosecution who wants to keep that secret.

[Lotta-b]

According to Kalmbach’s website they have medicated and non-medicated feed lines in their mill, and two of their medications are ionophores, the others are antibiotics for cattle. Last year according to FDA they ran medicated feed before non-medicated feed without proper cleaning techniques. According to Kalmbach it was a computer glitch not recording the cleaning. Fine, but here’s my issue. Obviously they are running medicated feed on that non-medicated line. They admitted it when they said the computer did not record the cleaning. That mwas they lied about separate lines. What else are they lying about? Do you really want to chance no one makes a mistake and runs an ionosphere medicated grain before your non-medicated? I don’t. I don’t really even care if the medication is antibiotics, my horse does not need it, and I don’t want it in my grain.
I’ve lost my trust in many of the feed mills because they seem to talk around this issue and not take it seriously. Enough accidents have happened in the last couple of years for me to decide to change to a ionophore-free mill so that I don’t take that chance. It’s not like I can treat my horse if there is an oopsies, my horses would be dead. It’s worth the hassle, to me, to get grain without taking that chance. Humans make errors, get lazy, or do just stupid things in the name of productivity on the job. Computers mess up also. Why chance it?
I’ve loved Tribute for 10+ years but I’ve loved my horses longer and that is where my loyalty lies.

[yourcolorfuladdictio]

Fly control feed as well as antibiotics are both considered medicated. Ionophores are the deadly of the trio.

As horses make up the smallest portion of livestock feed demand, it’s economical to run medicated feed on the same line as horse feed. The only time it isn’t is when it can result in a law suit, such as running ionophore containing feed in a manner where it could contaminate horse feed.

Hence the ionophore-free facility for horse feed.

[fordtraktor]

[QUOTE=Beethoven;8810516]
Exactly and don’t you think if it was an ionophore then the prosecution would of submitted a non-redacted version as evidence…[/QUOTE]

As a lawyer, not necessarily. There are several explanations/reasons why the prosecution either had to redact or was only given redacted documents. You can’t make assumptions about this without knowing a lot more about the suit than I have seen. And by that, I mean assumptions either way. “Wait and see” is a good adage for a reason. More facts are needed.