Spent Grain As Animal Feed

[LethalCorpse]

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.

 

[the egg]

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

 

[gibbocore]

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

 

[devo]

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

 

[Uncle Fester]

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

 

[FNQ Bunyip]

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

cheers

 

[bindi]

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

 

[braufrau]

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

 

[philipwebb]

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

 

[Bakes]

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.

 

[monkale]

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

 

[yardy]

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

 

[Dave86]

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

 

[brettprevans]

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?

 

[Ducatiboy stu]

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

 

[Batz]

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

Batz

 

[Gerard_M]

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

 

[head]

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

 

[goatherder]

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.

 

[Thirsty Boy]

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