Pecan meal for cattle feed

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Otha

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Comanche County, Texas
I have recently started working at a pecan shelling plant and have found there's a certain amount of waste that no one seems to know what to do with. Most of it is very small meal that has a small amount of shell particles in it. It's not economically feasible to remove the shell so it's considered waste. There is also some larger material, just not as much volume. My first thought was it could be fed to pigs but I don't have a single (domesticated) swine on my place. So the main question, can pecan meal be fed to cattle as part of a winter supplement program and how much. The only information I could find online was about the shell being used as roughage. Which at least tells me there's no reason to worry about the meal having a little shell in it. If anyone has experience with feeding it to pigs I'd love to hear about it. I just may have a few feeder pigs someday.
 
I have recently started working at a pecan shelling plant and have found there's a certain amount of waste that no one seems to know what to do with. Most of it is very small meal that has a small amount of shell particles in it. It's not economically feasible to remove the shell so it's considered waste. There is also some larger material, just not as much volume. My first thought was it could be fed to pigs but I don't have a single (domesticated) swine on my place. So the main question, can pecan meal be fed to cattle as part of a winter supplement program and how much. The only information I could find online was about the shell being used as roughage. Which at least tells me there's no reason to worry about the meal having a little shell in it. If anyone has experience with feeding it to pigs I'd love to hear about it. I just may have a few feeder pigs someday.
Off topic but where is this pecan shelling plant and what do y'all charge to shell? I drive from Seguin to Goldthwaite currently and I wouldn't mind having some other options.

Will be curious to hear what kind of answers you get about the pecan meal.
 
Wouldn't San Saba be a little closer?
It pencils out about the same, maybe 15-20 minutes difference. I got the recommendation for the place in Goldthwaite from a neighbor and liked them well enough to keep going that way for the last few years but it's good to have options. I've heard of a place in Bryan/College Station that would be cheaper and closer but they have a 1000# minimum and I'm not sure I want to shell that many before I get a good retail market in place. I plan to check out the pricing for the pecans.com folks in san saba this fall. I thought I hit the jackpot when I found a sheller down here by me but they charge so much it made my head spin.
 
Off topic but where is this pecan shelling plant and what do y'all charge to shell? I drive from Seguin to Goldthwaite currently and I wouldn't mind having some other options.

Will be curious to hear what kind of answers you get about the pecan meal.
It's in DeLeon, so a bit farther than goldthwaite. And I am not sure what they have charged in the past. There has been talk about not shelling for the public this fall.
 
I was in San Saba just before the Big Freeze and there were sacks and sacks of pecans stacked at the pecan houses. Did that freeze hurt them?
I don't bet it bothered them. We keep our pecans in a freezer at about 25 F. And I've been told the colder the better.
 
It's in DeLeon, so a bit farther than goldthwaite. And I am not sure what they have charged in the past. There has been talk about not shelling for the public this fall.
Interesting. I bought trees at a nursery in Deleon a few years back. Womack's I think
 
Otha,
I have no doubt that the pecan waste meal could be fed to cattle as a winter supplement. I have to move the cows out of the field my pecans are in when they're dropping, 'cause they hoover 'em up as fast as they hit the ground. They eat 'em husk, shell and all.

How much to feed? Well, you'd need a nutritional analysis to see what %CP, Fat, TDN, etc. it has... and, really, an analysis of your hay in order to determine how much to feed to meet optimal needs of your cows.
 
I don't bet it bothered them. We keep our pecans in a freezer at about 25 F. And I've been told the colder the better.
Pretty sure these were still in the shell. I've eaten pecans here that had previously froze on the ground and they weren't worth picking up & shelling. pretty nasty. Probably depends on moisture content tho.
 
Finally got the pecan meal reports back. A little lower protein than I was expecting. Can ya'll help me understand the rest of these numbers. Or point me to a resource to learn about what the various numbers mean.

Also some info on how to upload a picture or a pdf in a way that ya'll don't have to click on it to see it.
 

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Finally got the pecan meal reports back. A little lower protein than I was expecting. Can ya'll help me understand the rest of these numbers. Or point me to a resource to learn about what the various numbers mean.

Also some info on how to upload a picture or a pdf in a way that ya'll don't have to click on it to see it.
https://beef.unl.edu/learning/feedanalysis.shtml
 

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