Even though this is an appropriate comment from anyone first hearing about the idea of feeding ground woody products to livestock, all three of these assumptions are incorrect. As a professional livestock nutritionist, I don’t like the term “filler.” To me, this represents something that just takes up space and provides no value to the animal. I have proven that Juniper fiber is not a “filler” and that even though it does not have the nutritive value of say, alfalfa hay, it does have numerous characteristics that is beneficial to the rumen and the animal. Being that I cannot comment in detail about these benefits due to FDA regulations stating that a feed ingredient becomes a “drug” if any claim is made regarding enhanced animal performance or health, all one has to do is read the research that I published over the past 15 years and decide for yourself. You’ll realize that Juniper’s physical characteristics and its plant secondary compounds (terpenes and condensed tannins) off-set many of its nutritional limitations.

Regarding digestibility, my research discovered that juniper leaves are as digestible as alfalfa hay (around 70%), juniper leaves and small stems are 55% digested, and the entire tree is upwards of 33% digested. In comparison, cottonseed hulls are between 16% and 26% digested. Digestibility needs to be considered when formulating diets but the digestibility of juniper is not an extraordinary concern.

On a related note, unlike any other roughage ingredient in existence, Juniper fiber does not require any inputs by man to grow and thus, does not contain any residual synthetic chemicals such as pesticides or herbicides, making it the most all-natural feed product that you could ever purchase.

The crude protein (CP) in numerous livestock feed ingredients is below 6%. I discovered that juniper leaves contain 6% to 9% CP, juniper leaves and stems contain 6% to 8% CP, and the entire tree contains 3 to 5% CP. In comparison, cottonseed hulls contain 4 to 6.7% CP, peanut hulls contain 7 to 8% CP, and oat straw contains 2.6% to 8% CP. Thus, the CP content of Ground Juniper is not extraordinary low when one considers similar roughage ingredients.

As with all roughages, percentage in the diet depends on many factors. Are you feeding or supplementing cattle, sheep, or goats? What stage of production is that animal in (dry cow; late gestation; early lactation; newly weaned calf; growing steer; finishing steer; etc.)? If you are using it in a supplement, what is the condition of your pastures? Is your goal to supplement or substitute you forage production?

Without knowing any specific information regarding the animal, pasture conditions, concentrate ingredients in the mixture, I cannot make any specific recommendations. However, here are VERY general recommendations to start a conversation:

We cannot make this claim due to FDA regulations. However, read some of the research that I published and decide for yourself.

That is correct. We don’t have all the answers regarding how Juniper should be used in every situation or how it will effect animal growth performance or meat and milk production when mixed into all possible feed mix combinations. However, numerous feed ingredients have been researched for well over 100 years and we continue researching their use in livestock diets. For instance, cottonseed hulls used to be burned and buried back in the early 1900’s until research began, which showed their effective use in livestock diets. This research continues to this day and will continue on for many years to come. Redeemer Feed will remain diligent in collecting and evaluating data, incorporating feedback from our buyers, and providing updates on new discoveries.

This question is increasingly being asked. Numerous ranchers who know me personally, know that one of our main objectives is to help them reduce supplemental feed costs. I’ve been told, “So, one of your goals is to help us [rancher] but how will that happen if Redeemer doesn’t produce and sell mixed feed and Juniper Fiber is sold to the feedmill? Considering that we do not have plans to produce mixed feed, this is an important question. To help the rancher indirectly, we will do our best to develop mutually beneficial relationships with feedmills, which will include a trade-off between Redeemer Feed pricing Juniper fiber below market price of other roughage ingredients (to the greatest extent possible) in exchange for the feedmill passing along some of the savings to their customers. Thus, we will soon be presenting feedmills with three options: (1) sell bulk Juniper Fiber to you as we would with any buyer; (2) provide the feedmill an opportunity to “test-run” a low-cost (practically free) licensing agreement for 6 months to determine if using our “Redeemer Feed” trademark and proprietary mixes increases their customer base, feed sales, and net revenue; or (3) purchase a full licensing agreement, which offers immediate benefits and gives them greater regional exclusive rights. These licensing agreements will be tailored to be economically beneficial to Redeemer Feed, the feedmill, and the rancher who is purchasing mixed feed that contains Redeemer’s Juniper Fiber. We are confident that we can develop “friendships” with feedmills in multiple regions across Texas.

Additionally, Redeemer Feed is committed to directly helping ranchers, either produce Juniper fiber for their livestock or purchase Redeemer Juniper Fiber and mix it themselves with a 100% concentrate mixture purchased from their regional feedmill. Redeemer Feed will provide multiple educational opportunities for ranchers to move forward with using Juniper fiber in their supplements through individual consultations, webinars and online material, and in-person field days and conferences. With Redeemer Feed’s help, multiple ranchers have already achieve their goal of significantly reducing feed costs by incorporating Juniper fiber (they produced themselves) with other feed ingredients and feedmill mixtures.

We will soon have a pre-order page for you to place an order but for now, please see “Purchase Instructions”.

We are currently 100% focused on manufacturing and selling Juniper Fiber as a livestock feed ingredient. However, we will soon be offering other roughage and concentrate ingredients. Also, our sister company, Redeemer Ag, will soon be offering multiple non-feed items for sale such as mulch, lost-circulation material for oilfield wells, wood chunks and ground wood for firewood, and various ranch supplies. Redeemer Ag’s website is currently under construction but will be up in about 6 months. For more information, click here.

Yes, but on a very limited basis. Due to my time constraints, I generally send consulting inquiries to consultants that I know and trust, who consult for a living. Then, if needed, I work directly with that consultant; free of charge in most cases if our Ground Juniper Fiber is involved. Even though I do not have time to be your sole nutrition consultant, I do offer free consultation to any client who requests help to effectively incorporate Redeemer Feed’s Juniper Fiber into their production system. It is extremely important that our clients use Ground Juniper in mixed diets correctly and thus, we more than willing to offer assistance to help that client accomplish their goals with our products. All of my consulting services are done through Redeemer Ag.