Feed Value of By Products

[Stocker Steve]

I have been looking into the price trends and the calculated feed value of by products. It appears that summer is a good time to buy and corn gluten is one of the better deals.

I have seen a lot of studies on how soy hull pellets are a great supplement with hay, but I have not seen much information on corn gluten. Any thoughts on seasonal buying of corn gluten pellets for supplementing the energy of a hay based backgrounding diet?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Corn gluten with hay works great. Both a friend & myself use corn gluten/malt sprouts/soy hull blend for starting salebarn calves. I usually have grass to graze with the pellets while my friend has more cattle & less grass so he uses hay for roughage. We feed about 1% bw pellets & get 1 1/2 to 2 lb adg.


Check this link for some research on byproduct feeds.
http://www.ext.vt.edu/news/periodicals/ ... s-135.html

Also would suggest a google search on Byproduct feeds. Lots of good info out there.

Probably would be a good time to book corn gluten as it will surely go up this winter. Sure went up last winter.

BTW-did you ever try self-feeding malt sprout pellets? Although they are supposed to have palatability issues, we have not seen any difference in acceptance or consumption since adding the sprout pellets to the gluten/soy hull blend.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Howdyjabo]

Pelleting- binds some nutrients. You'll get more bang for your buck if you can get loose shipped cheap enough.And be careful where you get it-- if it was dried at too high of a temp it ruins it-- make sure they stand behind it.

CGF is a good all round supplement having both energy and protien--
have to be careful about the high sulfer levels and calcium shortage.

 

[Stocker Steve]

BTW-did you ever try self-feeding malt sprout pellets? Although they are supposed to have palatability issues, we have not seen any difference in acceptance or consumption since adding the sprout pellets to the gluten/soy hull blend.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

I dropped Accuration once I was able to measure what the consumption and feed conversion. I then lined up a semi load of malted barley sprouts for $80/T FOB to split with a neighbor. He decided he was not ready to start creep feeding yet, so I am self feeding ground cob corn right now. Still plan to try self feeding malted barley sprout pellets but did not want to commit to a semi load sized experiment.
The corn gluten plan was to pail feed it when starting cattle since it has more food value.

 

[mnmtranching]

I fed corn gluten pellets with ground ear corn to my calves last winter, they did good. Protien varys but averages about 20% some fiber, but just about nothing else. It looks to me like its a protien
source but thats about it. The price of gluten will follow other protien sources.

Have you thought of using distillers by product, you know up here in MN there is going to be a whole lot of it available, and more and more all the time. But like gluten its just protein and will be priced with other proteins.

I think if a person had a way to haul it and could buy it from the plant, might work good.

mnmt

 

[gertfan]

that is all we have fed for 3 years now, we only get the pellets with cracked corn the only trouble we have with it is when it gets down to the powdery gluten the cattle won't eat it.
Our kids 4H steers grown like crazy on it. They had a 3.88 and 3.77 daily rate of gain on it for 130 days.

 

[Howdyjabo]

When I feed out a calf or feed Gluten to the goats-- They won't eat the fines either. So I just put their daily salt or minerals on it.
Lick it right up then.
After a while they quit being so picky or forget they don't like the fines

 

[Stocker Steve]

I need an energy supplement - not protein supplement - with my roughage so the by products do not look like good values. I come up with about $.10/Mcal of energy for the (priced by protein) by products vs. $.05/Mcal to $.06/Mcal for corn.

Any ideas on energy cheaper than corn grain? Screening is the only idea that I can come up with. :?:

 

[Stocker Steve]

I fed corn gluten pellets with ground ear corn to my calves last winter, they did good. Protien varys but averages about 20% some fiber, but just about nothing else. It looks to me like its a protien
source but thats about it. The price of gluten will follow other protien source.

mnmt

How did you feed this ground ear corn/corn gluten pellet mix, and what was the comsumption per day?

 

[mnmtranching]

I backgrounded some of my steers, and I had my replacement heifers in the same pen. About 60 head. I hauled my earcorn to town and had them grind it then mix the gluten pellets in, they delivered it back to the farm. I used the Bobcat and fed it in bunks. I also had some vitimins and mineral mixed in, and always kept 30% Land O Lakes tubs for the cattle free choise.
All the mixed hay they could eat. I think about 5 to 6 lbs per day of the corn and gluten. What do you think?

The Co op in town put in a new feed mill, no more grinding earcorn. Only me and 1 other customer brought in earcorn last winter.

mnmt

 

[Stocker Steve]

Ear corn is the cheapest energy in my area, but unless you are set up to grind your own there are a lot of handling issues.

I am currently using ground ear corn in self feeders for less than half the cost of 20/80 Accuration.

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Ear corn is the cheapest energy in my area, but unless you are set up to grind your own there are a lot of handling issues.

I am currently using ground ear corn in self feeders for less than half the cost of 20/80 Accuration.

FWIW-Ear corn can be ground with a tub grinder using a 5/8" or 3/4" screen. I prefer the 5/8". A single 3" pipe running across the tub about 18" off the bottom helps move the ears into the mill. Some grinder companies make this as part of an ear corn kit. If there is anyone who does custom tub grinding in your area maybe they could grind it for you. I had self feeders on wheels. Pulled feeder to ground corn pile & used front end loader to fill feeder. Worked well for me.

Good luck & happy trails.

Brock

 

[Stocker Steve]

Don't you have more bridging problems with fines in the self feeder when you use small screens like 5/8 or 3/4 inch?

 

[Texas PaPaw]

Don't you have more bridging problems with fines in the self feeder when you use small screens like 5/8 or 3/4 inch?

Steve

Bridging was not a problem at the time as I had steel feeders with vertical, not slanted walls. Feeders also had adjustable slide gates, which had to be more open with the earcorn than pellets or other mixed feeds. The wooden,"Easy-open feeders" I have now are not adjustable and have tapered sides that get closer together at the bottom & would bridge terribly on 5/8" ground earcorn. My guess is finer grinding could bridge less with this type feeder, but have never tried it. What size screen do you use?

My first ear corn grinding was with a Farmhand tub grinder. I bought an "ear corn kit" which included a 5/8" screen. My next grinder was a Haybuster & they didn't have a 5/8 screen, so I bought a 3/4". Seems the 3/4 screen let quite a few more kernels go thru whole than the 5/8. Never bought a 1/2" screen so I don't know if that would be too fine. As I was doing a lot of custom grinding (by the ton) at the time, volume was a consideration and the smaller the screen the less tons per hour. Just my 2 cents worth.

Good luck & happy trails

Brock

 

[somn]

Ear corn is the cheapest energy in my area, but unless you are set up to grind your own there are a lot of handling issues.

I am currently using ground ear corn in self feeders for less than half the cost of 20/80 Accuration.

What part of Minnesota are you from I haven't seen a crib full of ear corn for almost 10 years. The last time I actually saw corn picked on the ear the people picking it had an arrangement with either Menards or Tractor supply I can't remember what one it was but one of them stores and they specialized in ear corn for squirrels and pheasants. Those people grossed $6800.00 per acre. If you ever get the corn sheller out let me know I will come and help you poke the corn down out of the crib and help kill the seemingly endless supply of rats that make their home among the ears of corn. Oh golly I hated that job. Ten minutes of that and I would remember why we don't do that anymore.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Ottertail County, MN. Many sales around here have one or two corn pickers on them, but the trick is finding the one that works well.

No rats in our corn - - at least according to the cats. We are feeding a lot of coons but I just bought a new .17 with a red dot to help with that.

I don't see why we should pay the oil companies for drying corn when mother nature does it for free. Buying a grain dryer and then feeding it back to cattle is simplier - but a bit lazy - to my way of thinking.

Cattle gain a little better on Accuration than they do on cob corn but the Accuration price is too high for me.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Bridging was not a problem at the time as I had steel feeders with vertical, not slanted walls. Feeders also had adjustable slide gates, which had to be more open with the earcorn than pellets or other mixed feeds. The wooden,"Easy-open feeders" I have now are not adjustable and have tapered sides that get closer together at the bottom & would bridge terribly on 5/8" ground earcorn. My guess is finer grinding could bridge less with this type feeder, but have never tried it. Brock

Standard "grain" screens here are 3/4" and 1". Over time, or with a little moisture, we can end up with a very fine cob mix that gets hard like a bag of portland cement.

We went up to a 1 1/4" screen which did reduce bridging. There are a few cracked kernals and small cob pieces but none of the steers have complained yet.