Did I just score? Or was it all work for nuttin!??

[justusnak]

OK, heres the deal. There was an accident on hwy 50, about 1/2 mile from my home. No one was hurt...Thank Goodness...but the big rig dumped a whole load of Barley on the side of the road. This Barley came from the distillery...its wet, and hot. They are going to leave it there for the birds, deer, whatever. There is about 100 tons of it. So, I went down, put a tarp in my truck, and filled it. Brought it home, and tomorrow, will lay it in the sun, and turn it to dry. Now, because this came from the distillery...is it good for my chickens? I did put some in with the pig...he went NUTS over it! I then threw a few hand fulls to the chickens....same reaction. LOVED it. My concern is...is it "good" for them?? I brought home about a ton...no kidding...thats a LOT of barley. My neighbor said it was about 36 % protiene?? He got some for his hogs and birds. I just want to make sure its ok for them...so...what do you eggsperts think?? Should I go get more to dry and store for them?

 

[millhoff]

It should be fine, I know they use grain from distilleries for animal feed all the time. Good for you on the score with feed prices going up.

 

[lilcountry]

I think I did read something about older chickens and too much protein possibly? Not sure it was a thread on when to switch feed and the nutrients the chickens need at different ages. How old are your chickens? That does sound pretty lucky though even if you have to use it in moderation.

 

[justusnak]

We have chickens of all ages. LOL From day olds, to 3 yr olds. I read Dairy cows love it, and it was a great source of protiene...Just not sure about chickens, or pigs?? LOL

 

[lilcountry]

Isnt scratch really high in protein and its only to be used in moderation? Hopefully someone else will answer

 

[keeperofthehearth]

You might want to check out this link. Feeding Barley to hogs then scroll quiet a bit down and they have results for feeding barley to chickens. You may want to watch how much you feed the chickens, esp. the chicks.

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/pubs/ansci/swine/eb73w.htm

Here is a portion of the "Feeding Poultry" section of article.

Feeding Poultry
The discussion of processing methods and types of barley in the previous section (Barley as a Feedstuff for Swine) apply equally to poultry and swine. As a result, that material will not be duplicated here. In addition, generalized information on feeding poultry, including the use of barley in poultry diets, has been presented by Cole and Haresign (1989), Jurgens (1997), Larbier and Leclercq (1994), and Waldroup (1997).

A review of feeding barley to poultry has been published by Jeroch and Danicke (1995) and may be consulted for specific references on feeding barley to poultry. Nutrient specifications for the diets formulated for poultry were taken from NRC (1994) or Jurgens (1997).


Feed Additives
Poultry, particularly growing chickens, are sensitive to the beta-glucans in barley. Beta-glucans form gels in the digestive tract of birds that are not broken down because of the lack of appropriate enzymes and the rapid rate of passage in poultry. Without addition of beta-glucanases to the feed, barley-based diets have been associated with reduced levels of available energy and with wet droppings, pasty vents, and wet litter.However, adding beta-glucanases to diets fed to poultry can effectively eliminate the problems with wet, gummy droppings while increasing the availability of dietary energy and reducing the effective variation in energy content.
The discussions that follow assume that enzymes have been added to the diet at levels recommended by the manufacturer of the appropriate product.

Note: Pasty Butt!!!! yuck!

 

[justusnak]

Hmmmm, well poo. Guess I wont go get any more! LOL

 

[dacjohns]

According to the tag on my bag of scratch the protein content is about 7.5 %. My friend that is keeping our broilers is only feeding them scratch or cracked corn(I think). I haven't seen them in awhile but I was told they aren't growing very much. If so that would verify low protein content of scratch.

 

[Broke Down Ranch]

Quote:
Scratch is very LOW in protein and very HIGH in fat - that's wy it should be fed in moderation if at all. Scratch should be considered a treat, not the only feed a chicken gets.

 

[Davaroo]

Dont be so quick to give up!

Cereal grains are primarily a source of carbohydrate energy. Wheat is preferred for its balance of energy to protein, corn is second. Barley vies for the show place with oats, so it will do.

Allow me to cite another source, Morley A. Jull from his classic "Successful Poultry Management," 1943:

"Barley is used extensively as chicken feed in some parts of the country. Usually the heavier the barley, the greater the feeding value. Barley is not so palatable as good quality heavy oats and chickens have to be "trained" to eat much of it. If it is to be used in the diet, one should start feeding it to growing chickens beginning at 3-4 weeks of age."

This was written before we "knew" so much and was based on empirical evidence. Barley appears later in Mr. Jull's book in various feed recipes, although never in prominence. It seems best used as a fattening agent, implying it lacks protein. This may be all the more true with your "pre-digested" brewery barley.

The previously cited reference from keeperofthehearth was very good and is oriented towards todays commercial poultry business. If you read on into that source, you will learn that barley is suitable for poultry, with some modifications to practice to maximize it's usefullness in the commercial business.

I'm assuming you're not a commercial producer and while not into chickens for profitable gain, you dont want to hurt them birds either. You're also not a poultry feed specialist, so I recommend you dont replace their ration feed with it.

All things taken into consideration, I'd call it this way:

Fed in moderation, it won't hurt them.

Get it dry and well packaged and I'd say you have a nice pile of supplemental scratch feed. Chalk it up as a score.