Posted on 09/24/2012 4:08:33 PM PDT by Altariel
ANSAS CITY, Missouri (Reuters) - Mike Yoder's herd of dairy cattle are living the sweet life. With corn feed scarcer and costlier than ever, Yoder increasingly is looking for cheaper alternatives -- and this summer he found a good deal on ice cream sprinkles.
"It's a pretty colorful load," said Yoder, who operates about 450 dairy cows on his farm in northern Indiana. "Anything that keeps the feed costs down."
As the worst drought in half a century has ravaged this year's U.S. corn crop and driven corn prices sky high, the market for alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cows has also skyrocketed. Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed.
In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels, even dried cranberries. Cattlemen are feeding virtually anything they can get their hands on that will replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.
"Everybody is looking for alternatives," said Ki Fanning, a nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting in Eagle, Nebraska. "It's kind of funny the first time you see it but it works well. The big advantage to that is you can turn something you normally throw away into something that can be consumed. The amazing thing about a ruminant, a cow, you can take those type of ingredients and turn them into food."
PRICING VARIES
Feed is generally the largest single production expense for cattle operators. Whatever is fed needs to supply energy and protein levels that meet the animals' nutritional needs. High prices for soy has operators seeking alternatives for both corn and soy.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
I used to work for Dawn foods where they made cake and bread mixes. We sold floor sweepings as hog feed.
A cow’s GI tract is not made for starchy feed. They do best on grass.
Do diabetic cows marble well?
You'd think that items made from corn syrup would cost more than the corn itself.
Ethanol, is there anything good about it??
LOL - I'll bet it is! When I was a kid my German Shepherd pup ate a big box of crayons. Forty years later I still think of the colorful logs in the yard every time I see M&M cookies,
Now I will think of them, too.
My days of eating M&M cookies are over.
Best laugh I've had in 2-3 days!
Diabetic Beef Co.
anyone?
Ethanol, is there anything good about it??
///
nope.
it uses more energy net, than it gives.
at a cost of billions in taxpayer subsidies.
(and as a bonus, it destroys small engines.)
-
...what amazes me, is all these articles mention the drought, that reduced yields by maybe 20%,
and ignore the 40%, going to ethanol.
I know, right?
Seen alot more sorghum fields lately here in Texas and in Oklahoma. Presumably for livestock feed.
I bet that cow pie is a colorful sight...
When I was a kid my German Shepard Mike ate most of a 10 lb bag of bird seed in the basement the winter of 1971, now 40 years later I think of him whenever I see one of those Italian pine nut cookies....still like the cookies though!
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