# Tractor Supply Oats freaking me out a little



## Marty (Apr 11, 2010)

I buy Tractor Supply Oats, Producer's Pride which is their name brand. Same stuff I have been buying for a while now.

Yestarday I bought 200 pounds, opened up the bags and dumped them into my cans and fed it.

Came back later to clean up the tack room, put my glasses on and noticed the oats looked funky.

I noticed they had a tiny bit of corn in them, and then some other stuff that looked to me like bird seed, or chicken scratch, for lack of a better description. Not a bunch, but enough so I could see it easily with my glasses on.

Called them up and told them about it and they offered me credit. They said something must have been laying in the bottom of the bin at the mill when they changed it over to create a different feed.

Today I went to a different Tractor Supply about 80 miles away from that one and purchased the same Producer's Pride Oats, brought them home dumped it and same thing. So I look on the tag, in the fine print on the back it said

Ingriedents: Grain Products.....it always says that and then

in fine print "Ruminant Meat and Bone Meal Free"












I never noticed that before. Now I have 400 pounds of this stuff.

So I don't know if I should call them back and ask what is going on or call the parmedics or what.

I suppose I"ll find out if my horses start molting, laying eggs, or cackeling.

Trying not to have a heart attack here. Remaining calm, calm, calm..........


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## mizbeth (Apr 11, 2010)

Hi Marty

I would call them about it. Take it back too.............oats are not supposed to have "other" things in it. I bought a bag of oats about one year ago that had corn in it. I took it back, corn defeats the purpose of feeding oats

You may want to call the company that makes their feed and tell them about it. I think I would be a bit ticked, especially if one of my horses got sick or died from eating it.

Good luck!

Beth


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## chandab (Apr 11, 2010)

Marty said:


> So I look on the tag, in the fine print on the back it saidIngriedents: Grain Products.....it always says that and then
> 
> in fine print "Ruminant Meat and Bone Meal Free"
> 
> ...


If you ask me... Oats, is oats, and that's all the tag should say. Our local elevator sells bagged oats that are listed the same way on the tag, I don't buy their oats, just not worth it (because sometimes you get those fines and I have a sensitive horse, so I'll stick with oats that come from the horse feed company). If its just oats, then that's waht the tag should say. Unfortunately, if you buy an all livestock grain, even plain oats, they will sometimes do this; and if it is an all livestock grain, that is the reason for the warning, as cattle are not to be fed cattle by-products (those by-products used to be added to cattle feed, as it upped the protein and other things).

Not horse, but on the same type of thinking; I was looking at the grocery store in the dollar aisle for cinnamon-sugar (Yes, I can make my own, but if its a dollar for the big shaker, then I'll take the convience), one place had cinnamon-sugar and the ingredients listed were chemicals I didn't know, its just cinnamon-sugar for goodness sake, how hard could that be, so I didn't buy it (the other grocery store had it and it listed cinnamon-sugar for ingredients, so that's what I got and its pretty good on my toast).


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## Becky (Apr 11, 2010)

I agree with Chanda. If the tag says something besides just 'oats', then what you are buying is not just oats. I'd be looking for a different oat supplier.


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## Minimor (Apr 11, 2010)

I've never bought TSC oats, and I've never bought oats that was labelled as containing anything but "oats".

That's a little weird that the tag would make any reference to being ruminant meat and bone meal free--I would presume that all oats is free of those ingredients!--but I presume that's just a standard wording they use on all feed ever since the BSE problems of a few years ago.

Honestly, I'd be a lot more freaked out if it had warned that it "may contain ruminant meat and/or bone meal"!

As it is, the label is simply confirming that the oats doesn't contain those ingredients, which we wouldn't expect it to contain anyway.

As for the "bird seed" appearance--one batch of oats I got was the same way--it looked like the oats had been ground up for birdseed. I wasn't happy about it & the horses weren't real keen on it, but I did use it. Close examination told me that it was just oats, nothing else, it was just very pulverized oats. As for corn, my rolled oats frequently has a bit of corn in it--not enough to be a problem in most cases. I did take a baggie of that pulverized "bird seed" oats back to the feed store, along with the tag showing the batch number, and made a complaint about it. Since then, no more bird seed type oats!


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## Mominis (Apr 12, 2010)

I bought a bag of the Producers Pride Oats from TSC to feed Shake since that is what Taylor's had him on (oats, I mean, not necessarily TSC oats). I got them so that I could mix them with the Omelene 200 that I'm switching him to and I had no problems with it. I dumped them in my bin when I got home and then I weigh them on the feed scale. I get a really good look at them in handling them several times. Nothing but oats. I wonder if it is the area of the country that you are in?


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## wwminis (Apr 12, 2010)

Marty,

I don't use TSC oats, but I feed recleaned whole oats from the CO-OP! They are 100% oats and very clean! If the label says 100% oats then that's all that should be in the bag! This usally happens in the grain dryers when changing from one grain to another!

Bill


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## MiLo Minis (Apr 12, 2010)

My guess is the feed company is basically ripping you off by replacing a small percentage of the more expensive whole oats with the less expensive "grain products" such as corn and meal and selling it for the same price as the whole oats were. They had to put the "ruminant meat and bone meal free" clause on it because they are not selling a whole grain.


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## Ellen (Apr 12, 2010)

i live here in Ohio. I have had trouble with the Producers Pride oats. They were dirty, dusty and I was unhappy. I get them from the mill, exclusively. I have better luck when they are recleaned and crimped.


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## wildoak (Apr 12, 2010)

I agree with MiLo.....probably a cost cutting measure that most people never notice. When I was still feeding oats, I got them from a local feed store and they did have a little corn in them from time to time, not enough to worry about. They came from a local mill and got to where they were so dusty that I quit feeding them. Purina sells very clean, pretty bagged oats, but _much_ more expensive - kind of defeated the purpose of feeding oats to me.

I think I'd be looking for another source.





Jan


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## Ellen (Apr 12, 2010)

Well, I do agree. The cost out weighs the benifits. We stick with ADM pellets. 14% and 16%.


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## mydaddysjag (Apr 12, 2010)

Had the same problem with producers pride oats here. Mine even had little sticks in the bag....

I switched to Blue Seal oats, which are a brand name but cheaper than the producers pride oats, and they are great.


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## ruffian (Apr 12, 2010)

It's more likely that they are not cleaning their mills thoroughly, rather than adding other grains.

The statement "Ruminant Meat and Bone Meal Free" means that they are not using the mills for their oats that they do for the other grains that would include the meat and/or meal.

It's like everybody else. Push and push and push to get the product out the door at the lowest cost. Not taking extra time to make sure the grinder and tubes are completely clean saves $$$. I don't think you'd have anything to worry about in feeding it.

After all, the pelleted feeds list lots of things that probably aren't in there, but are listed just in case.


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## MiLo Minis (Apr 13, 2010)

ruffian said:


> It's more likely that they are not cleaning their mills thoroughly, rather than adding other grains. The statement "Ruminant Meat and Bone Meal Free" means that they are not using the mills for their oats that they do for the other grains that would include the meat and/or meal.
> 
> It's like everybody else. Push and push and push to get the product out the door at the lowest cost. Not taking extra time to make sure the grinder and tubes are completely clean saves $$$. I don't think you'd have anything to worry about in feeding it.
> 
> After all, the pelleted feeds list lots of things that probably aren't in there, but are listed just in case.


The fact that they are putting the words "GRAIN PRODUCTS" instead of simply oats on a bag of oats leads me to think that this is not the case here though. Other than you are not completely aware of exactly what you are feeding your horse I would hope they wouldn't put anything in there that would harm your animals but then it has happened before.......


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## zacharyfarms (Apr 14, 2010)

Marty,

I think it is just the opposite and they are cleaning their equipment. Although it would be wiser if they then ran a run of waste oats or something to rid of the corn. I was told by one of the mill reps that they use corn to clean the extruders and filling equipment. Perhaps that is why they have to put this on the packing and that is what I have seen is just a few pieces of corn.


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## Marty (Apr 14, 2010)

Update:

I called the number of the mill on the ticket and reported that something strange was in my oats and they said they would look into it. Keep in mind this is more than a little stray corn here and there. Its all kinds of stuff.

Tractor Supply was good and launched and investigation and by late yestarday I had a call back from a Purina Representitive. They had my sample there that I brought to Tractor Supply. The bag of oats with the "bird seed" as I called it has been identified as "milo", something you feed chickens.

I was told that they get their oats from farmers all over the place who they contract but someone has dropped the ball at the mill as far as cleaning the equipment properly when processing. When some bags come out like that after cleaning equipment, they are to be set aside and obviously they were not and subsequently loaded on the trucks and they went out to the stores, so the mill is where the problem is. They seemed very concerned as some of you said when you buy oats, you should be getting oats and nothing else. This was much more than one bad batch as the dates are different from the two stores I dealt with. I was assured they would be cleaning the equipment at the mill much better now.


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## chandab (Apr 14, 2010)

Marty said:


> This was much more than one bad batch as the dates are different from the two stores I dealt with. I was assured they would be cleaning the equipment at the mill much better now.


Glad you got to the bottom of this and I hope they do clean better in the future. And, I think, you should be getting some clean oats for your trouble.


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