Fruit Veg and bakery waste

[greggy]

Hi All,

I am new here, I have seen a couple of things written on the net and here that were wrong, but I wanted to join up and discuss with anyone who is practicing feeding cattle and or sheep with fruit, veg and bakery waste.

Down here , decent hay is now about 400 bucks for what you guys would say is 900lbs, basically, large squares that are 400-500kg are 400 or more for lucerne.

So I have been feeding some waste materials.

What I would like to discuss, with those who may have been doing this for years, or decades, is what items do you avoid ?

It is very labour intensive, so I do not expect many large scale people would be doing this unless they get waste that comes direct from a farm rather than store, cause store stuff is often wrapped, or has rubber bands, plastic etc etc in there as well as some items that seem to be agreed are not ideal.

I may be too fussy, but I do not allow any paper, no plastic including small strands of bale twine (plastic), no rubber bands etc, so I basically have to pick through everything, I am thinking of ways too speed this up, and indeed, often the solution is to bin small items that have plastic wrap.

On the nutrition side, I would like to hear or discuss the feed items that may be marginal, or that you exclude and why, as there are things that will not poison a animal, but may have some ofther risk or unwanted effect.

My list so far is like this, I will split into categories and make it a seperate post so can be edited later potentially - PS I have Cattle, Sheep and Chickens. Would love to hear what you all have to say.

 

[greggy]

Known issue items
Avacado
Rhubarb

Side risks or possible risk
Apple - seeds may or may not be a risk, I wont cut them up, so I compost instead.
Any fruit with large round stones (I may try grinding or mulching later)
Potato - cut so it is not a round tennis ball size, just been doing half, but could mulch these too
Bread - limit the amount in each feed
Chocolate or containing chocolate - I throw out as chocolate is not good for many animals, do not want it sitting around

 

[5S Cattle]

Where are you that hay is $400 a bale?

 

[kenny thomas]

I would love to have chocolate to add to feed. High in fat and energy.

 

[greggy]

Where are you that hay is $400 a bale?

Down under....in drought effected area, been in drought 2 years now.

 

[greggy]

I would love to have chocolate to add to feed. High in fat and energy.

Really ? you would or have fed chocolate or items containing chocolate to ruminants ?

I was always of the thinking that chocolate was not much good for anything, dogs are a no, chickens from memory a no...

is there no build up or side effects ?

 

[kenny thomas]

I would love to have chocolate to add to feed. High in fat and energy.

Really ? you would or have fed chocolate or items containing chocolate to ruminants ?
I was always of the thinking that chocolate was not much good for anything, dogs are a no, chickens from memory a no...

is there no build up or side effects ?

We have fed tons of M&M's, sugar cookies, candy bars. Anything broken, missized, misformed. Great feed. We can't get it now.

 

[Kingfisher]

They have a M&M plant in Waco. I know some dudes that buy "kegs" of waste by product and use it at their deer camp. Deer love it.

 

[kenny thomas]

So do coons. They will make a mess around a creep feeder.
Oh and so will the bear.

 

[greggy]

I was reading that cabbage etc should be limited, I am wondering if this is more if you have a cabbage field though, or if the scraps may be enough to do harm over time.

I started them off slow, and they do not get it every day anyway, and I may only get 1ft x3ft x3ft of such leaves anyway, now this is shared between 5 5mth calves approx

 

[greggy]

Also thoughts on apples ?

I had been holding them back from cattle and sheep and chickens, my thinking is the pectin in the seeds builds up in birds, this may not apply too cattle as they are not likey to grind all the seed open, the sheep may though, thoughts ?

It also seems to me that not many people are mucking around with this stuff, so I realise there may not be many studies or info from forums

 

[cow pollinater]

I've seen just about everything you've mentioned mixed in cattle feed. Mostly TMR but some of it fed by itself. I wouldn't worry about the pits in stone fruit. They'll rip your AI glove but other than that I've only seen one instance where they caused any health problems. none of the dairies that I dealt with ever worried about wrappers and I've never seen a problem with them being fed, but again, it was in a mixed ration.
If you have access to it cull citrus is a great feed.
Nut crops can be phenominal and are a good source of protein but If it's to fine it can wad up as if they've eaten sand (pistachio silage). Almond hulls, in particular, are great feed and very safe.

 

[greggy]

Also read no to parsnip and celery.....

I think I will pass on those for the ruminants but let the chickens feed on them.

I wont give them anything with a wrapper, things can def build up and not pass, so I take out everything, take wrapping off, or would throw out if it was sweets, I do not want it building up in the animal nor all over the paddocks

Having a small place, I literally pick up as much small bits of plastic etc that I can.

Re the stone fruit, if I think it may damage my teeth by biting into something, then I avoid giving it to them, so plum, apricot etc, I have been setting aside, but I could always run them through a shredder too, actually, probably worth trying that with a lot of this, making a puree type of thing.

 

[greggy]

Oh, I must add, I am feeding ...

Cattle, Sheep and my chickens, so if a cow may easily handle a plum, my older sheep could break teeth, and I do not want to be making up 3 lots of different feed, most of these things can go to the chooks ok, never heard of breaking a beak ....