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Ranchers.net

Ok, ever since college when I took a "livestock and the environment" class, it has always bothered me that the feed salesmen balances your ration. In this class, the first half of the semester in the lab was re-balancing the rations to use a higher forage/concentrate ratio and reduce the phosphorus in the manure. The second half of the semester was doing a Comprehensive Nutrient Management Plan. My thought has been reinforced becoming a "grassfarmer." So the question is, isn't there a conflict of interest having the feeds salesmen balance your ration? Especially when he's paid a commission on his grain sales? One of my buddies who went to the first college I went to and transfered with me to Cornell, pledged AGR with me and so on, he went on to work for Cargill. He was an Ag Business major, not Animal Science. He decided to do some catch up, got into Adavanced Dairy Nutrition, struggled with it and as I said went on to Cargill. What was it they desired, he could sell. His brother worked for them and had a good reputation as an excellent salesmen. Just stirring the pot a little, I think this is worse in the dairy business.
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