Using Whey?

[saysfaa]

An exotic animal vet which told me not to give dairy products to my chickens.

That is the safe thing to say when there is little research published on the subject.

Especially to someone with pet chickens who might be thinking of any/all kinds of dairy products in all kinds of proportions of the diet.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

An exotic animal vet which told me not to give dairy products to my chickens.

...and what experience, do you think, do they have in poultry ration design? Or is this simply expression of the precautionary principle taken to extreme?

Selected clips from the formation of a complete poultry feed, 1952 Textbook on Poultry Management, courtesy @saysfaa.

Additional, and more recent, studies on incorporating whey, or milk proteins generally, into poultry feed.

Broiler Chick Performance given Whey

Feeding Broilers dried Whey (Spanish Study - good size)

Whey Concentrates in Broiler Diets

Dried Whey alone or Combined in Broilers

Whey and Salmonella in Broilers

Whey in reduced Crude Protein Diets (somewhat similar to those recipes from the 50s, also of importance to the EU)

Whey in fermented feed for Broilers

Dried Whey in Wheat/Barley Diets for Chickens

Still more

"My assumed authority says" is of no value here, as it is devoid of all useful information, which is to say, WHY they say such a thing, and what basis they have for expressing such an opinion.

This is not intended on an attack on you @Seggy4 , its merely an effort by those of us concerned about our chicken's diets to find out for ourselves, since so many sources of "authority" seem to have no actual experience or study into this particular corner of poultry-raising practice. and also since "tradition", while a useful stepping off point for intestigation and study, is both non-specific and not immune to either irrelevance (due to changed assumptions, changed breeds, or some other assumed factor no longer present in modern chicken keeping lifestyles) or because the tradition itself is an "old wive's tale" which has persisted due to habit alone.

 

[3KillerBs]

I'm still researching, as I find time. Not many studies, much conflicting information, small sample size, few suggested explanations.

FRUSTRATING!!!!!

I'm glad it's not just me getting confused with my LD and numbers. Mostly I manage the LD's without trouble.

I'm not looking to seek out whey or make it a regular thing, but sometimes I get discount milk, make acid-set cheese, and cringe over pouring the whey down the drain.

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I'm glad it's not just me getting confused with my LD and numbers. Mostly I manage the LD's without trouble.

I'm not looking to seek out whey or make it a regular thing, but sometimes I get discount milk, make acid-set cheese, and cringe over pouring the whey down the drain.

I am comfortable at this point in saying use the liquid in place of water to make wet mash.

I'm not comfortable in saying much more than that.

 

[Beer can]

I work in a dairy plant and have brought home condensed whey, 40% solids and mixed it in my birds feed. They didn't like it at all lol.

 

[NatJ]

I work in a dairy plant and have brought home condensed whey, 40% solids and mixed it in my birds feed. They didn't like it at all lol.

They might need to get used to it, or maybe it's a matter of how much you used?

 

[U_Stormcrow]

I work in a dairy plant and have brought home condensed whey, 40% solids and mixed it in my birds feed. They didn't like it at all lol.

Setting aside the question of taste, the studies I've linked above, together with others I'm still digesting (tasteless pun intended), collectively seem to suggest that the use of dried whey in poultry feed must be VERY limited, or problems arise. Its value as a feed addition appears to me to be for reasons OTHER than as a protein source.

Glad you didn't persist in that effort.

 

[Beer can]

Pages 25 - 28
http://agrimoon.com/wp-content/uploads/Condensed-and-Dried-Milk.pdf

Other sources say the vacuum drying method is older than the current two common methods.

Pretty interesting. Didn't know condensing had been around that long. I did know at least a hundred years cause just about every town around had a small dairy plant back then and either made butter or condensed milk.

I've ran a hugemoungus three stage evaporator for condensing milk, skim milk, or what we mainly use it for now whey. Runs 75,000lbs a hr. It uses a combination of vacuum and high temp, three stages.
The whey we run first through a reverse osmosis system takes it from 4% solids to 15%, then through the 'plant' evaporator takes it to 40%. It can go much higher if you don't pay attention (I've never done it but have seen the aftermath) plugs everything up with rock hard product roto rooter has to spend a couple days reaming/drilling all the tubes out, not designed for drying lol.

 

[Beer can]

So, I periodically make acid-set cheese from discount milk and end up with several quarts of whey remaining.

I can use a quart to make bread if I have guests (I'm on a low-carb diet so I need to feed bread to other people so I don't eat it all).

I can drink a cup or two (hot, with salt and pepper). No one else will drink it.

I hate pouring it down the drain, so ...

Can I use it up in any useful quantity making mash for my chickens? Mixing it with feed and/or scratch?

Especially, if I mix it with scratch will it help improve the nutritional quality? I only give scratch once or twice a week -- mainly as a training treat or to help the integration process by letting all chickens have a treat together. When I give scratch I often mix it with things like scraps from soup-making.

This is the best nutritional info I've found, but I don't know if the sodium content reflects mine because I don't salt the milk before making the cheese, preferring to salt the cheese afterward.

https://www.nutritionvalue.org/Whey,_fluid,_acid_nutritional_value.html

With my math disability I get lost in feed analysis numbers beyond simple things

Really interests me, kinda jumping around here, I can get tons of whey and have read a little on it. Always wanted to add it to their feed knowing protein but have been hesitant reading some stuff on digestibility and the fact I did a few times mix our concentrated whey in their feed and they didn't like it. Didn't go any farther than that. Maybe I added too much (I did add a lot) or as I thought maybe because it was acid whey, the product we make, cottage cheese results in a acid whey. Years ago we used to buy a sweet whey for a product we were making it was condensed also. That sweet whey smelt really good, like something you'd put on icecream. Not sure the difference between the two, but pretty sure the sweet whey came from mozzarella cheese..