Non-traditional Feeds
BY MIKE MEHREN

One of our readers asked about feeds other than hay and grain that are available to cattlemen. These might be vegetable, fruit, grain or seeds. My Mother would agree that I should know a lot about vegetable waste, since most of my veggies left the table hidden in a partial glass of milk, stuffed into a pocket, or tucked neatly into my cheek.

There are several ‘buyer beware’ factors that need your attention before you actually buy a new feed.

Let’s try to group by nutrient.
HI PROTEIN: (over 20% protein as fed)

Soybean Meal	Cull Peas	Cull Beans	Dry Corn Distillers
Premium Alf Hay	Corn Gluten	Whole Cotton	Canola Meal

HI ENERGY: (over 75% TDN- similar to grain)

Beet Pulp	Molasses	Fat	Cull Peas
Dry Corn Distillers	Bakery Waste	Corn Scrngs	Candy
Corn Gluten	Whole Cotton	Wheat Bran	Wheat Midds

CARRIERS (moderate to low TDN and Protein)

Wheat Scrngs	Corn Dust	Oat hulls	Rice Hulls
Grape Pomace	Almond Hulls	Grain Scrngs	Grass seed scrngs

Carrier is a general term that is used by feed mills. It says nothing about the quality of these products. . If I made a mineral- vitamin mix with salt, those ingredients might take up 1700 lb. To complete the ton mix, 300 lb of carrier would be added. Since the product is a vitamin-mineral, there is no practical concern for protein or energy as it will be fed at 2-4 ounces. The carrier adds palatability at a minimum cost.

You will note that some products are both good sources of protein and energy so they appear in both categories. Unfortunately feed labels do not list every feed individually. They can be listed as vegetable protein products or grain by product. This is done so that the feed manufacturer doesn’t have to change labels every time they change from soybean meal to canola meal, or grain screenings to corn dust. I don’t think it matters whether the protein in a supplement comes from cull peas, soybean meal, or alfalfa hay when feeding beef cattle under normal circumstances. The source of the energy can make a difference. For instance there is a limit on the amount of fat that can be fed to beef cattle. It doesn’t matter whether the fat comes from a vegetable oil or corn distillers grain. Your choice of energy source may also affect performance if you are using the energy to supplement a high fiber diet. For instance is you want to improve gain on pasture or creep feed a bunch of calves, energy from fat and digestible fiber may be preferred when feeding over 0.5% of the animal’s weight. In English that would be like feeding 500 lb calves 6 lb of corn versus 6 lb of corn distillers or wheat midds. The distillers or midds should promote greater improvement in gain than corn. Feeding too much supplement on grass brings about less grass intake and little is gained.

HIGH MOISTURE FEEDS:

HI PROTEIN
Wet corn distillers	Hi Qual Alfalfa Haylage	Wet Brewers Grains
Fresh Peas

HI ENERGY
Wet Corn Distillers	Cull Potatoes	French Fries
Wet Brewers Grain	Fresh Peas	Cull Pumpkins
Cane/Beet Molasses	Whey	Hi Moist Corn
Carrots	Fresh Peas/Beans	Wet Brewers Yeast
Bread	Wet beet pulp	Turnips
Onions	Watermelons	Glycerin

ROUGHAGE:(moderate to low energy hay substitute)
Asparagus Butts	Apple Pomace	Corn Cannery Silage
Corn silage	Barley silage	Triticale silage
Hop Vine Silage	Mint Slug Silage

The wet feeds have been listed separately because handling and storing them is quite a bit more involved than for dry feeds. Shrink is also greater and must be included in the value of the feed. For instance, if you purchase 1000 tons of fresh corn cannery waste, our estimates made over the years show that it will shrink (you will lose) 40% of that weight, so you will have 600 tons to feed. If you paid $10/ton delivered, when shrink is considered, the cost would be $16.66/ton because you only have 600 tons to feed. Then add piling, packing, and covering to get an estimate of your total cost

The alternate feeds mentioned in this article can be purchased directly from the processor. This might be cull fruit or cull vegetables. Some feeds may be purchased directly from
a feed mill. They may be able to sell you cull peas or cull beans. A third option is to purchase different feeds from a broker. Brokers sell feeds like grain screenings, corn distillers (wet and dry), as well as grains. Do your homework before you sign a contract to begin feeding something new. I had a customer that purchased fresh corn cannery waste to feed his cows. He planned to dump it along a fence line and allow his cows to eat it free choice. He called me because he thought he was being cheated on the weight of the loads. He calculated that his cows were each eating 100 lb of cannery waste daily. He said he only fed 25 lbs of hay in years past. In fact, since the cannery waste was 22% dry matter, the cows were easily able to eat that amount of corn cannery waste because it amounted to 22 lb/cow/day of dry matter.

Some of the feed brokers listed in the 2009 membership directory of the Oregon Feed and Grain Assoc. include:
Cascade Grain Prod (ethanol) Evans Grain James Farrell
Laughlin Cartrell North Pacific Trading Pendleton Flour Mills
Round Butte Seed Wilbur Ellis I also contact Commodities Plus of Spokane.

The products shown are just a small group of alternative feeds that cattle eat and convert to lean red meat. Very few of these are eaten directly by humans. Many are refuse from a product or plant that would be dumped into landfills and sewers if not fed to cattle.

Michael J. Mehren, Ph.D. is a livestock nutritionist from Hermiston who has found good alternatives for brussel sprouts and okra. He can be contacted by Email at mehrens@eotnet.net.

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