Never mind the argument about grass-fed vs grain-fed beef, what about Cap’n Crunch-fed beef or even Twizzler-fed beef?
When we put corn in our cars, it costs too much to put it in our cows. The solution, let them eat scraps, everything from Cap’n Crunch cereal to Hershey candy bars. Nearly all can be pulverized and turned into feed. The candy wrappers are vacuumed out of the processed dust but the machine can’t digest Twizzlers. They are fed whole to the livestock.
Cows munch on recycled Captain Crunch
Throwing food scraps to hogs and other farm animals is an age-old practice. As food production has become more industrialized, food factories have found ways to continue to recycle massive amounts of would-be food waste.
Often, more than 50 percent of livestock feed is made up of some kind of recycled material, said Iowa State University animal scientist Mike Persia.
“Animal agriculture is one of the leaders in the green revolution, even though they have never touted that,” Persia said.
Probably because it is grossly unappetizing.
If you like doughnuts and milk…
With today’s fairly high corn and grain prices, farmers’ savings from incorporating cast-off vegetable trimmings and doughnuts can be significant.
Jeff Clausen manages 3,000 cattle in two feedlots outside of Omaha, Neb. He says the majority of his cattle’s feed is bakery byproduct – bread, dough and pastries that get burned or misformulated.
“When corn is $2, it’s not as big of an advantage to feed it, but when corn is $6 or $7 then everybody is looking for ways to get corn out of rations,” Clausen said.
The product isn’t cheap, but he said it’s usually about 70 or 80 percent of the price of corn.
…the Hershey Company sells their candy that isn’t up to snuff for humans to the ag company Cargill, for use in livestock feed.
“The (wrapped) product is put into a grinder and then into a hammer mill and it’s broken up into a very fine consistency, a little bit bigger than dust. The hammer mill uses a vacuum to pull out the paper ,” said communications director Jeff Beckman. “The only product that couldn’t go into the grinder is our Twizzlers candy, because of the gummy texture. So, product is sold directly to the farmers unprocessed, which they feed to cattle.”
Well, waste not, want not. The residue is ultimately balanced for nutrients. Bon appetite.
Our pets, & I’m sure yours too, have a healthier diet than many people that consume fast food frequently. The dog & cat food & supplements we spend money on to keep our 4 legged family members healthy, is a priority for us. At our house, we mostly eat venison. The beef diet issue in Pat’s article is a bad way to treat a cow. For those that primarily eat beef for protein, the food that the food source consumes probably effects the nutritional value.
Good stuff, however if I am not being out of line here cows and people have been eating genetically modified corn for five decades which results in altered proteins and enzymes within cows and us people. This may bode ill for us as generations emerge with with ticking time bombs of some sort in their DNA in the future. Though this is pure speculation on my part and though there may be a scientific basis for such speculation it is out of my field. I have noticed that mice over the winter in my summer kitchen have avoided the contents of a cereal box and preferred the cardboard. maybe paper candy wrappers are healthier than the Cap’n Crunch for our dear bovine friends.
What a waste of wrapping paper! They should figure out how to discern human-grade from cow-grade chocolate before the candy’s wrapped, then they wouldn’t have to vacuum the paper out after it goes into the hammer mill.
That would be a great job, sampling the chocolate as it comes down the chute and giving a thumbs up or down. “Eww, another batch for the cows here boss!”