Not a meat bird question but pertains to all meat animals

[anthonyjames]

How many of you out there brew your own beer?
Do you feed your grains after brewing to your animals?

I am in talks right now with two local breweries to get their spent grains. I know you can feed them to your animals. The question is how much should you feed them?

I work for a small family farm they have llamas, donkeys, horses, calves, pigs, etc. This year I am moving my operation on to the farm for meat birds, and a few of the following lambs, pigs and beef cows. All will be raised on pasture in rotational grazing. But since I can get these grains I figured feed animals then compost the rest.

Anyone have any insight or thoughts and amount to give the animals daily/weekly?

Thanks

 

[Brunty_Farms]

You're only about a half an hour from Milwaukee, I would go down there and check out Growing Power if you haven't already done so. They do tours daily for like $7.00 and well worth every penny.

They use trailer loads of the spent grains to feed their worms. I'm not sure but he may feed it to some of the goats or chickens there too.

I love Wisconsin cheese, and beer! You guys have some good breweries.

But to answer your question directly, I'm not sure. As most of the nutrients are probably exhausted from the grains in the brewing process. Probably nothing more than a little carbs I would imagine.

 

[FarmerJamie]

Quote:
OH YEAH!!!!

I get spent grain from one of my brew-making buddies, about a 5 gallon bucket each batch. I take a 9x9 pan, pack it full with grain and freeze it (we call them "chick-sicles"). During the summer, my 15 hens get one about every 4 days or so.

One of my other buddies just mixes the spent grain in with the regular feed about 50/50.

But, if you are getting the grain in massive quantities, I would think if feeding them to chickens, you would need to up their protein intake?

 

[anthonyjames]

Jeff,

I am at growing power a lot this time of year picking up greens and some extra veggies to eat. I grow some stuff under lights in my basement but not enough for the 3 girls that live in my house. I have seen Will's operation and it is quite extreme and great.
But that being said the farm I am at has to keep it's looks high everywhere on the farm because the town/city is not very nice and does not support them. The surrounding towns/cities support the farm great. But they are not the rule keepers. So everything we do or plan on doing we go through with a fine tooth comb from setup to execution to visually astatic to make sure no complaints come in. Plus, the nicer it looks the bigger crowd we draw as the farm has a 1 mile stretch along the freeway that people see and it helps draw them in. Especially in the fall when hay rides and pumpkin picking starts.

I currently keep worms at my place and the plan is to give classes and follow some of the same practices Will does for composting but we are going to try and take a step further to make boxes/kits with worms available and not just coming in to purchase 5 gallon pail with compost and an unknown amount of worms in it for $25. First time I purchased worms from them it was all compost and not one worm. So I ending up paying $50 and I picked worms personally to fill my second bucket with compost. We have the manure base that is for sure. And getting the grains will help as well. But was looking to feed some to the animals say 1 - 3 times a week as a treat or something. I figured if I kept them all on pasture I would have to walk it out there and I don't want to do it daily that is for sure. Give them the spent grains that is.

 

[ShadyHoller]

Quote:
It's my understanding that the opposite is true, and spent grains are still pretty nutritious. It's actually the carbs that get fermented first, because the sugars feed the yeast that make alcohol. When the sugars are depleted, the grains are "spent", at least in terms of brewing. But the yeast microbes don't digest a lot of the other stuff, so the protein, the minerals, cellulose, etc. all remain. Some of those remaining ingredients are nutritious, some (cellulose) aren't.

So, it's my understanding that what you are left with is a grain that has fewer carbs than it started with, not more. Here's Wikipedia's short version: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brewing#Fermenting

A few months ago I called all of our local breweries and microbreweries, to see if they had any spent grains going to waste... and it turned out that other folks had beaten me to it, and the spent grains were in high demand! Here's an example: http://naturalbrewbeef.com/

What I'd really like to find is spent grains from someone who brews Hefeweisen, because wheat tends to have higher protein than barley.

 

[HEChicken]

Interesting post. One of my egg customers brews and we bartered a reduced price for the eggs in return for the spent grains. I've found I have to freeze most of what he gives me right away because my small flock can't eat enough to finish it before it starts to ferment. So I freeze it in batches and defrost as needed. It is a good supplement to their regular food and they seem to enjoy it.

 

[HEChicken]

Quote:
If I were you, I'd probably post an ad on Craigslist, or put up an ad in your local home brew stores. The breweries might already have customers for the spent grains but I bet there are a lot of private parties out there who brew for their own needs and don't already have an outlet for the grains. You might be able to offer a trade - eggs for grain.

 

[SteveH]

Because I live under 40 miles from a corn alcohol plant , I did some internet research quite awhile back . Brewer's grains can be used as a percentage of a feed mix with good results , and higher in some proteins than the corn before its processed . However , past a certain percentage , production levels of meat , milk , or eggs actually declined . I was told the plant only sells by the semi load , so I never tried experimenting with the stuff as a feed for my small number of birds .

 

[Brunty_Farms]

This is good stuff.... I had no idea.

 

[Lazy J Farms Feed & Hay]

The quality of the Spent Grain/DDGS is based on the feedstock. In beer brewing the feedstock is typically barley or wheat while in ethanol production it is corn. The fermentation process concentrates the nutrients from the feedstock to the co-product by 3, so the protein in DDGS is three times that of corn on a DM basis. For monogastrics the problem with DDGS/Spent Grains are the low Lysine and Threonine levels and higher fiber content, fortunately there is a higher Methionine/TSAA content.

Using Fermentation co-products is a great way to reduce feed costs if they are used properly, in market hog rations I can save upwards of $25 per ton of feed by using high levels of DDGS.

Jim