Feeding Buttermilk to Turkeys

[tallgrass]

I recently remembered my mother talking about raising turkeys in Ar as a kid. She says my Grandmother fed Buttermilk to the turkeys in the beginning. She also said the turks were so stupid that they would stand out in the rain heads up and mouth open and drown.
Has anyone fed buttermilk?

 

[yakibert]

Don't know about the butter milk - but the thought of drowning in the rain makes me think that if that is true, I can't see how they were able to survive so long before the European settlers arrived.

 

[A.T. Hagan]

Buttermilk, skim milk, clabbered (sour) milk and other such dairy byproducts were once pretty common poultry feed components back when most every farm had at least one cow. Feeding them to poultry was an efficient way to use a quality byproduct that might otherwise go to waste unless they had pigs or something.

But for today? If I had a milk animal and had the buttermilk or whatever already on hand I'd use it. I for sure would not go out and spend money on it. You won't get anything that you're not already getting by using a properly formulated gamebird feed.

As for the old saw about being so stupid that they'd drown in the rain it has never been true. What is true is that a LOT of people who have tried over the years do not understand how to raise turkeys thus blame the birds for poor management practices.

 

[ChickenJerk]

Once upon a long time ago-

When we raised turkeys on the range because we didn't know much about their nutritional requirements, for one thing, we also had disease problems.

We got blocks of whey, about 40# as I recall, packaged in a plastic bag within a carton, that carried the Kraft logo still used today. They were supposed to help with all sorts of intestinal diseases including blackhead and coccidosis. I don't recall of it being very effective and really think it was fed out of our lack of knowledge about turkey nutrition and diseases in those days. Much like the ACV fantasies many subscribe to today.

The stuff tasted really bad, very acidic. I know because one day, when I was not very old, one of the hired guys had apparently had enough of me and rubbed my face in the stuff. My father liked the guy. He was on the payroll until my Dad put me in charge of the turkeys on the farm. I changed him to unemployed within a week. My older brother was very grateful that I fired the guy who had by that time become his father in law.

Back when I was very young my grandparents fed milk by products to the chickens when the few hogs they had could eat no more. It was never thought of as of much value as feed.

Today science knows that with what little feed value for birds there is in milk products it is much better used in mammals.

As for turkeys droning in the rain- well I have raised more turkeys on range than probably all the people on this forum put together can even imagine. It is BS. Something used to "test the gullibility of city people" as my uncle would have expressed.

 

[Chris09]

Milk and milk byproducts has always been a good poultry supplement, one of the reasons it is high in riboflavin.
Riboflavin is know to improve growth of birds and improve hatch-ability of eggs. A lot of your better poultry feed Mfg. will either add Riboflavin or milk products to there Poultry Breeder feeds.

Chris

 

[ChickenJerk]

Milk and milk byproducts has always been a good poultry supplement, one of the reasons it is high in riboflavin.
Riboflavin is know to improve growth of birds and improve hatch-ability of eggs. A lot of your better poultry feed Mfg. will either add Riboflavin or milk products to there Poultry Breeder feeds.

Chris

Milk products are high in riboflavin but are seldom used in industrial or bagged poultry feeds. High cost, perishable. Dried brewers yeast is the primary source of riboflavin in those feeds. Even calf milk replacers utilize a lot of this byproduct in place of actual milk products.

 

[Chris09]

Milk products are high in riboflavin but are seldom used in industrial or bagged poultry feeds. High cost, perishable. Dried brewers yeast is the primary source of riboflavin in those feeds. Even calf milk replacers utilize a lot of this byproduct in place of actual milk products.

Milk and Milk Byproducts is used in a few of the better poultry feeds along with Dried Brewers Yeast, although the Dried Brewers Yeast is used more as a B Complex.
Some feed mfg's. will simply add riboflavin to there breeder and grower feed.
One of the reasons livestock grow/ produce and reproduce so well on Calf Manna and products like it is do to the amount of Milk Byproducts and Riboflavin in it.

One of the easiest way to raise Riboflavin at home is to simply add milk or milk byproducts to the poultry's diet.

On the Milk Replacer a lot depends on who puts it out, I know that Kent Feed puts out a 5 or 6 that have Milk and Milk Proteins as the First ingredient.

Chris

 

[tallgrass]

Buttermilk, skim milk, clabbered (sour) milk and other such dairy byproducts were once pretty common poultry feed components back when most every farm had at least one cow. Feeding them to poultry was an efficient way to use a quality byproduct that might otherwise go to waste unless they had pigs or something.
But for today? If I had a milk animal and had the buttermilk or whatever already on hand I'd use it. I for sure would not go out and spend money on it. You won't get anything that you're not already getting by using a properly formulated gamebird feed.
As for the old saw about being so stupid that they'd drown in the rain it has never been true. What is true is that a LOT of people who have tried over the years do not understand how to raise turkeys thus blame the birds for poor management practices.

I will ignore your defaming my mothers memory. If she said it happened then it happened. You weren't there so you don't actually know. Do you?
A group Doctors examined my brother and said he would be nothing but a vegetable in a wheel chair due to polio. He was a7th grade school teacher for 26 years and had a Masters Degree. You also don't know squat about my Grandmothers farming abilities either.They grew turkeys for many years. Their family survived the depression and all with a near show farm and they ate very well.

 

[Chris09]

I will ignore your defaming my mothers memory. If she said it happened then it happened. You weren't there so you don't actually know. Do you?
A group Doctors examined my brother and said he would be nothing but a vegetable in a wheel chair due to polio. He was a7th grade school teacher for 26 years and had a Masters Degree. You also don't know squat about my Grandmothers farming abilities either.They grew turkeys for many years. Their family survived the depression and all with a near show farm and they ate very well.

So that you know, Turkeys will not drown by standing in the rain with there heads up and there mouth open. That is a old wives tail that got passed on to you for what ever reason.

Chris

 

[tallgrass]

So that you know, Turkeys will not drown by standing in the rain with there heads up and there mouth open. That is a old wives tail that got passed on to you for what ever reason.

Chris

I gues we just have to agree to disagree. My grandmother raised turkeys for about 25 years and that was most likely many years before you were born. When you say NEVER then you are in for some suprizes. Out of the millions of turkeys and probably billions of turkeys then anyone can give that some truth. We you there? When you try to pigeonhole nature you might wind up surprised. How many turkeys have you observed out in heavy rainstorms while looking up?