Wet Brewers Grains

NW Ohio Tim · Jan 17, 2011

Hey Guys,

Any of you feeding wet brewers grains to livestock?? How do you store it and handle it??

I have access to a small steady amount, not far from home. I'd like to add it to my hog ration to cut costs. I know I can't feed it 100% and I know it'll spoil in a few days in the summer, I'm just wondering if anybody out there has had real world experience.

Everything I read says it's too wet to handle as a solid and too dry to be a liquid. All the methods I find recomend modifying equipment to handle it like a solid... with augers and such. I'm thinking if that doesn't work well, which they all say it doesn't...... why not add water and handle it like a liquid??

I know I can't run it through regular hog feeders as a liquid... I'm just brainstorming. $6+ corn isn't helpng me stay in the hog business.

You can email me if you want: rgf98 @ hotmail.com

Thanks, Tim

bison · Jan 17, 2011

I used to feed it to my dairy cows.they brought it by the semiload,we would store it like silage in a pit and pack it down by foot,only the top inch or two would spoil after a few weeks.
we would get a load a month.
I don't know how wet yours is though,ours would just seep out at ground level a bit.

gene bender · Jan 17, 2011

The pres of the IOWA PORK PRODUCERS was talking on the radio and he does it. Its great for cattle feed as i know those who do it but its in hi demand they are sending the dried stuff overseas in containers. Friend who has large cattle operation told me it takes a 10 day or so wait for delivery as the demand is so great. Look up some fasct on the net as im sure some are there. Those who live close to distillers have fed it for yrs as its nothing new.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 18, 2011

Lot of dairy farmers in the UK use brewers grains and store them in the silage pit like bison said. MJ

Mike (WA) · Jan 18, 2011

A customer when I worked for PCA tried it with hogs, and found that the fat wouldn't firm up on the carcass, making the meat sort of disgusting to his customers. He experimented a little, and my recollection is that if fed at less than 20% of the ration, it was OK.

Worked great for us on the dairy in the '50's, though- nutritionists at the time could not account for the increase in milk production based on the content of the material.

This was the stuff left after brewing beer (we called it "malt"), not after distilling hard liquor.

showcrop · Jan 18, 2011

The dairy farms that I have seen using it just have it dumped in the bunker silo. It spreads out and looses its moisture pretty quickly so that it is easily handled with a skid steer and added to the ration.

dieselpup · Jan 18, 2011

The dealer that sells out of Coors near here will dump it into a small ag-bag. Works well in the wintertime but is a mess in the summer if not fed quickly.

tjdub · Jan 18, 2011

I buy brewers grains from a local micro-brewery. Each batch they do only yields about 2500lbs of wet grain. They put it in blue plastic 55gal drums and load them in my pickup with a forklift. I feed it right out of the truck over the next 2 to 3 days. If it's below 0F, it starts to freeze to the outside of the barrels after 24 hours, so I try to feed it out as fast as possible. I've always been able to knock the frozen layer out by hitting the barrel with a bar. In the summer time it rots quickly so I try to feed it out fast then too.

I keep looking for a better way to haul and feed it out (like something than involves an auger), but sometimes keeping it simple is better, I guess.

Anyway, it's great feed supplement for cattle. High protein and good calcium. My cattle would walk over a pile of ground corn to get to some. I keep a couple of hogs for meat, and have tried to feed it to them, but they didn't even want to touch it. My chickens don't seem to go for it either.

NW Ohio Tim · Jan 18, 2011

Thanks for the replies guys. Maybe I'll have to convert the barn to cattle since they seem to be the preferred animal for brewers grains........ or not.

I'll figure something out.

Thanks again,

Tim

kyhayman · Jan 18, 2011

I cant help you on going the solid route but as to going toward a liquid, I've got a pretty good background with both condensed distillers soluables, at 70 percent water; and thin stillage at 90 percent water. In both cases feeding to cattle, not hogs.

The last good money I made farming was in the 80's feeding thin stillage from Wild Turkey distillery to beef cows. It comes in at 90 pct water. Shelf life is about 4 days in summer. The solids really want to settle out so its important to be able to agitate it before handling.

Also, its important to know the nutritional analysis of the product you are using. Depending on the grains it can vary radically in protein fractions, heat damaged protein, and calcium to phosphorous ratio.

Anonymous-0 · Jan 18, 2011

I'm not in the livestock business, but occasionally read livestock related articles. Cattle are the best avenue to feed wet brewers grains, but they have also have been successfully fed to hogs. However needs to be a fairly low percentage of the ration, around 10-15%.

Anonymous-0 · Mar 3, 2011

I work at a brewery and haul spent brewers malt to area dairy farms here in wisconsin. Most of the farmers mix it with a tmr mixer with 50 to 60 percent corn and hay silage 20 percent ground corn and 10 to 25 percent wet brewers grain. They say it helps cows eat more in the hot summer. Have heard that to wet of grain can twist cows stomach. Took small load to my dads on monday for 25 head of cows and steers.Been mixing 50 to 50 with some dry grain . kept a full scoop in tractor bucket to let most water drain to bottom and scoop off top. has been ok so far hope to use most up befor it goes bad . last much longer in cooler months and goes bad about 7 to 10 days in summer . One farmer puts silage perserve on it to help last longer.

Wet Brewers Grains

NW Ohio Tim

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bison

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gene bender

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Anonymous-0

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Mike (WA)

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showcrop

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dieselpup

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tjdub

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NW Ohio Tim

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kyhayman

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Anonymous-0

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Anonymous-0

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