Pea hulls, no butter beans

[Tomcolvin]

My grass is slim at best. Had an 1/4 inch rain yesterday. There is a pea shelter operation about 7 miles from me that will give me all the pea hulls I want. He says no butter bean hulls will be in them. I picked up about 10 bushel today and fed to 15 cows and 3 calves. I don't think that the calves ate much of them. My concern is feeding to much at one time. I only got about a third of a trailer load because In this 100 degree heat I was afraid they may sour and cause me some problems. I can get all I want but not sure if I could store them for a couple of days. .They are kinda like mulch, they get real warm the longer they set. What are your thoughts on this. I need feed and hay is costly and this is free while they last.

 

[coachg]

Pea shelter or pea sheller ? Some of our northern friends might not know . I wouldn't over do it .

 

[Dave]

Pea hulls. Never fed them but had a friend next to a green bean processing plant. He fed their waste. He fed grass seed straw to add fiber to their diet. I use to feed canary waste from a sweet corn processing plant. A lot of moisture in it. I put very stemmy sorry hay in the feed bunk and the corn waste on top of it. Enough of the juice from the corn waste soaked into the hay that they would clean up everything.
Probably could use some source of fiber to go along with the pea hulls.

 

[Tomcolvin]

My grass is slim at best. Had an 1/4 inch rain yesterday. There is a pea shelter operation about 7 miles from me that will give me all the pea hulls I want. He says no butter bean hulls will be in them. I picked up about 10 bushel today and fed to 15 cows and 3 calves. I don't think that the calves ate much of them. My concern is feeding to much at one time. I only got about a third of a trailer load because In this 100 degree heat I was afraid they may sour and cause me some problems. I can get all I want but not sure if I could store them for a couple of days. .They are kinda like mulch, they get real warm the longer they set. What are your thoughts on this. I need feed and hay is costly and this is free while they last.

Should have said peas shelled.

 

[Tomcolvin]

Pea shelter or pea sheller ? Some of our northern friends might not know . I wouldn't over do it .

Pea sheller, I have picked up 4 loads so far. The cows love them. It has given the grass a little jump start thank GOD. A load will last 3 days. I park the trailer outside the pasture in a very shaded spot so the sun don't shine on it and cows can't get to it. I'll put out probably 10-12 bushels For 14 cows and 3 eating calves. When they see me coming with trailer they come running. First 2 loads were White Acre hulls, last 2 were purple hull.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

My best guess is that they are going to be similar to soy bean hulls. That said, they are still 'green' and as such, my guess is that they are more nutritious than Soy bean hulls. Soy bean hulls are fed often when hay reserves are low/non-existent. My thought would be to get a sample and have a feed analysis done on it. I would expect the shells to be very goof/excellent in many components you are looking for in the feed: CP, energy...? At the same time, they might be lacking. Another thing the hulls will/should be good for is going to be organic mineral content, which is way better than feeding 'ground up rock' in the form of a mineral block or tub. Grasses are very low in organic minerals. The hulls should be high, which is good.

 

[Twisted]

Pea sheller, I have picked up 4 loads so far. The cows love them. It has given the grass a little jump start thank GOD. A load will last 3 days. I park the trailer outside the pasture in a very shaded spot so the sun don't shine on it and cows can't get to it. I'll put out probably 10-12 bushels For 14 cows and 3 eating calves. When they see me coming with trailer they come running. First 2 loads were White Acre hulls, last 2 were purple hull.

They will make their tongue purple and all the other cows will laugh at them.

 

[Ebenezer]

I would wonder a bit about bloat if a lot is fed at one time.

 

[Mark Reynolds]

I would wonder a bit about bloat if a lot is fed at one time.

Good call. It is obviously a legume. Finding an answer to that I'm sure is going to be difficult if not impossible as info is going to be extremely limited or even non-existent. To err on the side of caution, I'd say limit the hull intake to 30% of the diet, but that doesn't mean that above 30 is even dangerous. Without info/data, no one can say.