Feeding Cows Bread

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As long as it's not moldy, it should be fine. Cows love it. They can eat several pieces without any issues. Instead of throwing our old bread out, I take it to the cows and goats and they sure appreciate it.
 
I have fed my cows/calves table scraps and grass clippings for years. Every meal they get from what is being thrown away is
shekels in my pocket. It also teaches them to try something different rather than being starved into it.
They go bananas for apple peelings and watermelon rinds but not bananas......
Be careful with anything from the house yard. No elephant ear leaves and no yew trimmings or anything that has had chemical applied.
ie use common sense
 
@Lee VanRoss, interesting: I have 3 cows that will fight over banana peels but if it's the whole banana, they practically take my hand off. And baby carrots.

@Cattlelow, I've posted this pic before but, yes, they love bread and it's fine as a treat. Prior to Hostess going bankrupt, there was a Hostess outlet in town and I would get racks of "day old" bread, Twinkies, doughnuts, bagels, etc.
 

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I know a guy who fed tons of ground bread and pastry. There were little flakes of color in the pile. I asked what they were. He said it was pieces of the packaging. They were about the size of a pin head. Paper and plastic. Small enough that thyey went right through the steers. He fed very rank old reed canary grass hay and ground bred free choice. He was getting 3 pounds a day on Holstein steers.
 
@Lee VanRoss, interesting: I have 3 cows that will fight over banana peels but if it's the whole banana, they practically take my hand off. And baby carrots.

@Cattlelow, I've posted this pic before but, yes, they love bread and it's fine as a treat. Prior to Hostess going bankrupt, there was a Hostess outlet in town and I would get racks of "day old" bread, Twinkies, doughnuts, bagels, etc.
My father did the same thing for several years at the Mrs Bairds outlet store. (They are now owned by Bimbo Bakeries, a Mexican outfit..don't ask me how they came up with that name) He would get a pickup bed load at a time and store it in some 55 gal pasteboard barrels with ring lock lids but he left it in one of them too long, and the bugs got in it and I'm here to tell you, that bread can go into a liquid state and you DO NOT want to smell it.

The cows and horses loved that bread, especially the corn tortillas but they wouldn't touch the flour tortillas. Dad hated racks that had them in it but that's the way they came. I got really tired of eating several 'day old' stale donuts tho, as he always pulled some out and had them at his house.

On a weekend visit years ago, when I still lived in 400 miles away in West Texas, he loaded my Jeep Cherokee down with pastries and bread to take back home (there was no saying no to him) and I was almost home when I got pulled over for speeding. about 2 in the morning. The trooper shined his light in the back, asked me what I had back there and when I explained what it was and how it came to be, he just shook his head, said he had a father like that too, handed me back my license and said, "You keep your speed down and "have a good night Mr York."

When I got into San Angelo, I pulled up to the 1st dumpster I saw and chunked most of that stuff in it.
 
I have fed my cows/calves table scraps and grass clippings for years. Every meal they get from what is being thrown away is
shekels in my pocket. It also teaches them to try something different rather than being starved into it.
They go bananas for apple peelings and watermelon rinds but not bananas......
Be careful with anything from the house yard. No elephant ear leaves and no yew trimmings or anything that has had chemical applied.
ie use common sense
Www.lawnstarter.com has some additional info on feeding clippings.

Do not feed them to horses and this was written for cattle:
"Cattle, on the other hand, can safely consume fresh grass clippings as long as they do so within 8 hours of mowing. This is when fermentation and decomposition begin. During fermentation, cattle tend to avoid them, but once the clippings have gone through ensiling — where sugars are fermented into organic acids — the resulting silage can be consumed.

In a fairly new venture, a Wyoming based landscape company has developed a landscape waste compactor that converts lawn clippings into cattle-safe silage in about 28-days. The process takes clippings into 1-ton poly-lined, sealed sacks and allows the biomass to ferment into usable livestock silage."
 
I know a guy who fed tons of ground bread and pastry. There were little flakes of color in the pile. I asked what they were. He said it was pieces of the packaging. They were about the size of a pin head. Paper and plastic. Small enough that thyey went right through the steers. He fed very rank old reed canary grass hay and ground bred free choice. He was getting 3 pounds a day on Holstein steers.
I think that feed is different than bread right out of the package. There is a place here in Okla , I guess they are still in business, that you can buy what you are talking about and it is good feed. But bread straight out of the package will mess up a cow , clogs them up. I know we had it happen and had to have a vet out on one. I also knew a man that fed bread but would take a torch and burn the packaging off said it dried it out enough that it would not hurt them ?????? I don't know if that would work or not , never tried it ????
 
I know a guy who fed tons of ground bread and pastry. There were little flakes of color in the pile. I asked what they were. He said it was pieces of the packaging. They were about the size of a pin head. Paper and plastic. Small enough that thyey went right through the steers. He fed very rank old reed canary grass hay and ground bred free choice. He was getting 3 pounds a day on Holstein steers.
I think that is different than bread right out of the package . We have a place here in Oklahoma that sells what you are talking about, I guess they are still in business ???, and it is good feed . But bread right out of the package can mess them up, clogs them up , I know we did it and had to have a vet out. I knew a man that would burn the wrappers off with a big torch of some kind and said it dried it out enough that it would not hurt them ???? I DON'T KNOW , NEVER TRIED IT ????
 
Wouldn't it be easier & safer to simply take the time to remove the packaging and break or tear the bread (or Twinkies, doughnuts, etc) into smaller pieces? That's what I did for years and it wasn't a big deal, nor did I ever have any cattle get clogged up - BUT they were treats & certainly not even a supplement to their nutrition.
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@Lee VanRoss, interesting: I have 3 cows that will fight over banana peels but if it's the whole banana, they practically take my hand off. And baby carrots.

@Cattlelow, I've posted this pic before but, yes, they love bread and it's fine as a treat. Prior to Hostess going bankrupt, there was a Hostess outlet in town and I would get racks of "day old" bread, Twinkies, doughnuts, bagels, etc.
All I see are Buns in the back of that Hummer. I think you took all the Twinkies and Dounughts for yourself...... 🥮

By the way, how is your husband doing? Is he healing?
 
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Www.lawnstarter.com has some additional info on feeding clippings.

Do not feed them to horses and this was written for cattle:
"Cattle, on the other hand, can safely consume fresh grass clippings as long as they do so within 8 hours of mowing. This is when fermentation and decomposition begin. During fermentation, cattle tend to avoid them, but once the clippings have gone through ensiling — where sugars are fermented into organic acids — the resulting silage can be consumed.

In a fairly new venture, a Wyoming based landscape company has developed a landscape waste compactor that converts lawn clippings into cattle-safe silage in about 28-days. The process takes clippings into 1-ton poly-lined, sealed sacks and allows the biomass to ferment into usable livestock silage."
Could it ferment longer, say 6 months or so?
 
We feed a lot of bread and bread products, the cattle love it and eat it all, we unpackage all of it, it is a cheap filler and they do well on it. We have had ero problems, we feed a few slices or a few donuts to the horses but not much, no problms there either, we can mix it with distillers grain and they love it even more
 
All I see are Buns in the back of that Hummer. I think you took all the Twinkies and Dounughts for yourself...... 🥮

By the way, how is your husband doing? Is he healing?
LMAO! Well, that way I could just cram 'em in and then stack the boxes of the really good stuff in the passenger seat & floor. Not a Twinkie or Hostess fan, but I'll plow through a bag of Oreos!

Thanks for asking about Mr. TC. Unfortunately, he continues to wear the badge of Hot Mess. Ortho surgeon not sure what to do with the femur break; too small for pins and fusing to scar tissue. He is healing from the lumbar laminectomy. But currently on Doxycycline because yet another stitch from his pacemaker (in 2018) came loose & segued into a naaaaaasty infection & fluid on/around his heart. Quality time w/cardiologist tomorrow. And cataract surgery on the 17th. But he still has a good attitude!!!
 
Wouldn't it be easier & safer to simply take the time to remove the packaging and break or tear the bread (or Twinkies, doughnuts, etc) into smaller pieces? That's what I did for years and it wasn't a big deal, nor did I ever have any cattle get clogged up - BUT they were treats & certainly not even a supplement to their nutrition.
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we were not feeding it as treats we were feeding it and little bites or big bites it can clog them up. The dried processed into a feed bread that you can buy is good feed and will not clog them. I had an aunt that had a trailer built and bought several tons a year bulk and fed a bunch of cattle on it
 

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