Moldy Grain?

[Simpleterrier]

Yep I gave my 4 and 6 year olds a stick tonight and had them help.me.move.my steer. They made a closed gate in a 16 foot opening just by waveing plastic fence post. Moving cows go slow stay calm and watch were your eyes are u can stop some cows just by looking or make them nervous. Some time just turn your back to them (the right way not the wrong way)

 

[greybeard]

Lots better and easier to lead them than to drive them, tho that is a problem if they are 'off their feed'--won't eat.

I'm about 8 miles North of Cleveland on FM 945. If I can help, send me a pm.
Or, you can come by once all this rain moves out..

 

[Mark Suplee]

She seems to be doing much better this morning, both cows were up and on the fresh grass.
@Wehner Homestead thanks for all of your insight. I'll look at those links as soon as I get a moment. As far as the grain goes. I wont allow them free access any more. I feed it mainly primarily to my chickens as a supplement they are also on pasture and get layer crumbles. I go through 55-110 gallons a week but I get 400+ gallons a week. needless to say, I have a few high nitrogen compost piles (the cattle do not have access to these). I am trying to find a better way to put it to use. Id like to get a pellet mill and pelletize and dry it for long term storage.

 

[greybeard]

What kind of spent brewers grain (specifically) is it?
barley, wheat, maize, rice, sorghum, millet?

The fat content on a lot of brewers grain can be pretty high and too much ingested fat kills off rumen microbes and otherwise disrupts the rumen activity. No rumen activity= the stuff just sits in there, and they won't want to eat and will look 'poorly' a lot like as if they were wormy.

I've fed a little of it....stinks all to be dang for sure and drew fire ants here...as if I needed any more.


Mycotoxin is the primary concern in molded feed, and under no circumstances should moldy feed be fed to pregnant cattle.
A discussion on it, but some may not agree with what is being said. TB knows his stuff most of the time tho:
http://cattletoday.com/forum/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=107906

 

[Mark Suplee]

@greybeard you have been mentioned in all of the few threads I've posted. Its nice to finally hear from you.
The grain is barley. The brewery is a small craft brewery in Houston. They occasionally add other ingredients to the grain, sometime beets, citrus or coffee I would refrain from feeding them the grain with coffee. i did not notice any additional ingredients aside from the barley.

 

[farmerjan]

Sorry I didn't chime in sooner but I am no expert on wet brewers grain. Many of the dairies that I milk test for, do feed it, but they are feeding it usually in a total mixed ration and are going through it in larger quantities. Look at the link that @greybeard gave you as that is by some much more experienced cattlemen. We run a cow/calf operation and therefore are careful about any kind of moldy feed. The mold in some hay bales, not so much as we feed round bales and they can pick through it as we do roll out quite a bit of it in the colder months. This time of year they are on pasture and with the extensive rain this year, grass has been growing although it is "watery" and not as beneficial for weight gain as if it had more dry matter. I have thrown out some moldy clumps of feed for the chickens to pick through, but try to not let the cows get into it. Again, as @greybeard has said, the micotoxins can cause some real problems, and the excessive amount of fat can cause the rumen's PH to get out of wack and cause die off of the bacteria and microbes that help the rumen to function. Hence "big bellyache" for lack of a better way to put it.

 

[greybeard]

Barley shouldn't be too bad regarding fats..brewers rice tho can be pretty high. They normally (the brewery) won't be adding anything of significance to it.

I would limit the brewers to no more than 1/4-1/3 to start, of their total daily intake and slowly work up if you want to, trying to keep the stored feed dry which can be a problem because of our high humidity. They still will need some long stem grass or hay to make up the dry matter nutrition requirements.

It will compost really good.

As far as making pellets, you'll need a grinder or mill, something for a binder and a way to extrude the pellet and something to chop the extrusion to length, all of which you probably already know being an engineer.