“Some oil could be added to decrease the dustiness of the moldy feed and increase palatability,” Richert says. “Molasses could also be added to reduce dustiness and partially cover these moldy off-flavors.”

Mycotoxin binders or enzymes provide another option. “We can bind about 2 ppm of vomitoxin with some binding agents,” Richert states. “There are only a few that are effective against vomitoxin or DON.

“The clays and aluminum silicates do not work well for vomitoxin or DON. They work with aflatoxin, which is a completely different mycotoxin that is not of concern this year.”

Producers should look at food preservative-type products or enzyme-specific products for vomitoxin. The enzyme products will cleave the toxin to make it less toxic to the animal.

“Different toxins have different requirements for those compounds, and we have to be careful what we put into those diets,” Richert says. “They may or may not help us.”

Producers should talk with their feed company and nutritionist to look at performance test data for some of these compounds depending on what they’re dealing with, and determine which ones provide efficacy for that particular mycotoxin, Richert advises.