# Spent Grain As Animal Feed



## LethalCorpse (7/11/08)

We've got a dozen or so horses that cost a fair bit to feed. I'm wondering if it would be worthwhile throwing in spent grain to offset part of their feed. Are we taking out all the nutrients, carbs and proteins in there, or is there enough leftover that an equine gut could make use of it? If it works and if my Dad's happy with it (he's an animal nutritionist, but I'd prefer to have brewer's input before I mention it to him) then I'd be happy to collect spent grain from other local brewers on a semi-regular basis.


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## the egg (7/11/08)

Not sure what the nutritional value is, but our horses love the stuff.


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## gibbocore (7/11/08)

don't know how you'd keep it, but the fruit flies go nuts for it prety damned quickly.


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## devo (7/11/08)

The chooks kept by my neighbors can't get enough of the stuff.


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## Uncle Fester (7/11/08)

I vaguely remember a post from a few years ago where someone (Goatherder ??) killed his goat with spent grain.

Apparently some animals (not sure if they are Ovone or Bovine) do very poorly on the stuff. It basically swelled their guts until they died h34r: 

Fester


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## FNQ Bunyip (7/11/08)

our poddy calf gets stuck into it ... loves it, 

cheers


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## bindi (7/11/08)

Also make sure there are NO HOPS in the grain, fatal to some, i.e. dogs .


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## braufrau (7/11/08)

The trappist monks feed it to their cows .. so it must be OK for bovines.


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## philipwebb (7/11/08)

My chooks and duck start going nuts when they see me walking in to the chook yard with the drained mash tun on brew day. Once a month treat they simply can't get enough of.

Cheers 

Phil


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## Bakes (7/11/08)

I think I remember reading somewhere that grand ridge brewery slaughter some of their own cattle for their restaurant and that it is fed spent grain.

It may have been another micro, but they seem to stick to mind.


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## monkale (7/11/08)

The scrub turkey out the back of the shed cleans it up in about 12hrs he and his mates love it :icon_cheers: 

Cheers Jeff


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## yardy (7/11/08)

we've got guinea fowl, geese, chooks and ducks, on brewday they hover around the shed until i empty the tun :icon_drool2: 

give it to the horses, bart cummings does (allegedly) 

yard


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## Dave86 (7/11/08)

Dunno about horses, but I'm pretty sure boags give/sell (not sure which) theirs to local farmers for cattle feed


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## brettprevans (7/11/08)

LC - covered in the dog biscuit thread under brew food. dogs and choocks love it. nothing wrong with them but hops are poisionous to some animals so you have to check with a vet?


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## Ducatiboy stu (7/11/08)

Do not give horses spent grain..it gives them colic


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## Batz (7/11/08)

When I had goats they ate it with no ill affects.
Chooks eat it now

Batz


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## Gerard_M (7/11/08)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Do not give horses spent grain..it gives them colic



Is this due to it being such a wet feed?

We have been supplying spent grain to a cattle farmer & recently a sheep farmer. The sheep cleaned up over 300kgs in a day & a bit! There are a heap of them apparently & the spring lambs really took to it. We will have the lamb on the menu in late Feb early March 2009.

Cheers 
Gerard


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## head (7/11/08)

As above........Do not feed horses Spent grain. A brewery, a few years back, threw some grain over the fence to the adjacent horses.....the horses nearly died, or so the story goes. I would say don't tempt it. Dogs, pigs, goats, ducks, chooks......sure. Just not horses. I have uses the dog Biscuit recipe from the forum and our dogs, friends dogs etc love them.

Cheers, 
Head


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## goatherder (7/11/08)

Uncle Fester said:


> I vaguely remember a post from a few years ago where someone (Goatherder ??) killed his goat with spent grain.
> 
> Apparently some animals (not sure if they are Ovone or Bovine) do very poorly on the stuff. It basically swelled their guts until they died h34r:
> 
> Fester



Not me I'm afraid Fester but I remember the thread. Someone fed their goat a lot of spent grain and it died. Large quantities can acidify the gut and poison them apparently. The same can happen when goats get access to grain stores.

I feed my spent grain to horses, cattle, chooks, geese and goats with no ill effects. That being said, the quantities are quite small. Generally on a brewday, I end up with a full bucket of spent grain. Half goes between two goats, the rest goes to 6 geese and what gets washed out of the mashtun goes to the chooks. Occasionally I'll treat the horses (I don't like 'em much) and the two of them will get half the bucket each. No problems with any of this, but again, the quantities are quite small in the scheme of things. I'd be concerned giving commercial brewery quantities to animals like horses and goats where as giving it to cattle and pigs seems to be common place. If you really want to give it to horses, mix it with some chaff or bran or something to bulk it out.


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## Thirsty Boy (8/11/08)

At work we sell our spent grain specifically as cattle feed - so I'm 100% sure its fine for them. Apparently they love the stuff and it significantly reduces the amount of methane they produce in their farts - thus lessening their contribution towards global warming.

I cant see why it would be bad for horses, giving horses a hot mash of barley/oats is a pretty old and traditional thing to do. I wonder how that would differ to spent grains? Still, with DBS's warning I would be inclined to ask a vet what they thought before I served it up to a horse!! 

Thirsty


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## Carbonator (8/11/08)

I have heard that anything that has an "energy" component can be used for "stock feed" once it has been contaminated in some way by mould or other form.

I bought some "stock feed" Dextrose about 5 years ago and it still worked well in brew pack beers back then.

You need to talk to Uni graduate on the subject, because "stock feed" rated stuff is very open to interpretation, also protein content of the grain is to be considered!

Anything "that hits the ground" during "bulk" loading for transport in sugar, grain, etc. is classified as "stock feed", so there is bargains to be had out there!


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## flattop (8/11/08)

I have no idea really but cows do have more stomachs than horses, and really it's a bit like drinking really; all in moderation and you don't feel ill the next day.


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## Fourstar (8/11/08)

I remember speaking with the brewer at Grand Ridge. 

They use all of their spent grain on the owners/local cattle and then serve them up at the restaurant.

Yummm.


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## Ross (8/11/08)

Fine for cattle - *NOT* for horses or goats... 


Cheers Ross


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## Gough (8/11/08)

We give our spent grain to a local cattle property - they rush the fence when they see the trailer coming up the drive!

A local did take small volumes of spent grain to 'help get some condition' into his sick horse. From all accounts it worked, but it was only the odd 20kg bucket here and there, not the full 300kg batch. I certainly hope it didn't hurt it!

Shawn.


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## Paul H (8/11/08)

Gough said:


> We give our spent grain to a local cattle property - they rush the fence when they see the trailer coming up the drive!
> 
> A local did take small volumes of spent grain to 'help get some condition' into his sick horse. From all accounts it worked, but it was only the odd 20kg bucket here and there, not the full 300kg batch. I certainly hope it didn't hurt it!
> 
> Shawn.



Anyone have cattle in the Brisbane City area?


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## bradsbrew (8/11/08)

Paul H said:


> Anyone have cattle in the Brisbane City area?



Plenty of old cows.


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## Carbonator (8/11/08)

bradsbrew said:


> Plenty of old cows.



Brisbane city would have the highest ratios of fat cows, especially in the Gum-Mint. They are proliferate breeders too!
B) 

Seriously a mate of mine has a farm at Laidley and works every day in Acacia Ridge if you are giving stuff away.


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## Cortez The Killer (8/11/08)

Chooks love the stuff here

CHeers


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## TasChris (10/11/08)

It was my goat that died from eating grain. Apparently it was cause he ate too much too quick. He ate about 6-7kg in about 5mins.
I now feed it to the cattle but 6-7kg spread around the paddock stops one animal gorging itself. It seems to put a good sheen on their coats.

Cheers
Chris


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## therook (10/11/08)

Ducatiboy stu said:


> Do not give horses spent grain..it gives them colic




Stu,

What are you basing this on ??????

I have been giving the grain to the horses for years and have never had a horse go down with colic ever

Rook


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## afromaiko (10/11/08)

I have a sample of 'fancy' dry dog food in the cupboard at home that looks like muesli. Among oats and other things.. it contains cracked barley, calcium carbonate and brewer's yeast. The instructions say to mix it up with water the night before you feed it to your dog so that the yeast begins to ferment it all a little. 

Sounds very interesting. I was pondering what the calcium carbonate was supposed to be in there for, and was wondered if they make it up from the left overs from some brewery's mash and it's just in there when they get it. As mentioned, the food is dried so I guess they could dry all the grain out all out before mixing with the other ingredients and packaging. There's only about half a dozens ingredients listed anyway.


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