Hi,
Something I don't feel I should keep to myself, is the fact that the grains (corn, soybean meal, flax, canola, etc.) were tested by Oregon Department of Agriculture in 2007,2008,2009.
The tests revealed higher than normal levels of Selenium.
I know all this because I spent the money on testing my livestock's liver, blood, and hair. The levels were off the chart. That's when the ODA got involved. The grain test results are on their website.
If you google "selenium toxicity" you will see that even a tiny amount more than what is recommended will build up in the body and eventually will rise to toxic levels. They also add more Selenium, to the feed, without testing the grain first. Even if they didn't add more Selenium, the grains have tested high enough to cause Toxicity on their own. There is no law that says they have to test, and they know most livestock owners will never think to test for Selenium levels when their animal has problems. So they can keep raking in the money, and nobody is the wiser. (it can take more than a year to build up to the toxic level, just depends on how much is in the feed)
Selenium has the narrowest range of safety of all the essential minerals.
There is a whole industry built up around the sale of Selenium. Don't be fooled by the "Organic Selenium" either. It is all toxic at the right amounts.
Since all the major feed manufacturers purchase grain from the same place, they are virtually the same no matter who you purchase from. Corn and soybean are not grown in Oregon, they are being shipped in from South Dakota where the soil is extremely high in Selenium (believe it or not, the farmers in South Dakota would not graze their livestock on that land, yet they will grow millions of acres of grain for the western half of the US. to consume.
I already talked to the FDA and filed a formal complaint. They said they know it is a problem, but they have no law about "naturally" occurring Selenium, only a law about the "addition" of it, and are reluctant to cause problems for the grain industry. So they are going to wait until enough people complain about it before they do anything. The problem with that is, most people would never think to test for it when their animal goes down. It can cause any one of a hundred different symptoms. The Vets have no experience with it and they won't think of it either.
I recommend purchasing feed from somebody who uses locally grown grain from low Selenium areas, because you can't buy a vitamin/mineral premix without Selenium added (I know, I've tried). So if the mineral mix added to the grain has Selenium, you certainly wouldn't want other ingredients to have Selenium.
