Feeding Poultry Litter To Beef Cattle...

Feeding Poultry Litter To Beef Cattle:


This is the title of a document that I found at the Ag. Extension Office today. I thought for sure that it was going to touch on the issue as being negative. How naive I am...

"Beef producers searching for ways to lower feed costs should consider poultry litter as a possible nutrient source for wintering, growing, and finishing cattle...poultry litter can be an economical source of crude protein, energy and minerals for beef cattle." "Litter contains bedding material, manure, wasted feed and feathers, and it may be from one or more flocks of birds" "Since litter may contain scrap metal, the material should be mixed or fed with equipment with a magnet to remove metal that may cause hardware disease." (that's like saying broken bone disease, as if there may not be a known cause)"Common foreign materials in litter include broken light bulbs, broken thermometers, pieces of metal broken from equipment, nails from construction/repair, etc." "Some animals may refuse to eat an adequate amount of poultry litter rations. Such animals should be culled (killed) or grouped together and fed another ration.(Matt Poore, Extension Ruminent Nutritionist)

This is why we do what we do! I have heard about this on the big documentaries, but to see "how to" do it in my own town is a little eye-opening and motivating! So if anyone is curious why our prices and prices of good beef are what they are, its because we were not aware of this process, which could reduce our feed costs!

-Dale