The term “alternative feedstuffs” can mean a lot of different things, but in cattle it is often thought of as edibles not commonly found in the feed bunk.
“Alternative feedstuffs is really a broad and all-encompassing term,” said Kansas State (K-State) University Research and Extension beef specialist Justin Waggoner. “Everything from cereal-type breakfast products to chili, salsa-type waste that would come out of a salsa factory, even pecan holes. So, it’s a really broad category that I think is sometimes really hard to define.”
Waggoner uses soybean hay as an example and says his discussion with producers includes knowing what products were applied to the soybeans and how the product was produced. Cattle producers don’t normally feed soybean hay, but recent drought conditions in Kansas and other parts of the country have led to producers utilizing this alternative.
“We really have to understand the process of how the product was produced, including whether there are any artifacts or chemicals from production,” Waggoner said. “Maybe it’s even the cleaning process of that factory.”
When looking for alternative feedstuffs, he said it’s important to evaluate if there is something that could be a concern in the product. The other side of evaluation is logistics and knowing how much of the product is going to produced on a weekly basis and what the expense will be in addition to how the product is handled, stored and delivered.
“A few years ago, a producer was looking at cold produce waste that was gathered out of grocery stores and large metro areas,” Waggoner said. “So then you look at whether it is something that we need to feed within a week or is it something that we can create a system to store that product on farm and maybe get a larger volume of that product.”
Product packaging is also a factor in alternative feedstuff selection. Knowing what the packaging is made of, how to remove it and dispose of it is important, according to Waggoner.
“Some of that packaging would need to be removed prior to feeding, while some of that we can process but it may pass through the animal into manure,” he added.
Geography also plays a role in the use of alternative feedstuff. Waggoner said many products are regionalized and not accessible to every producer. Poultry litter is considered one of many regionalized products that some cattle producers have access to in Kansas.
“We do see some bakery product waste that comes out of some factories and the analysis on those is always pretty favorable,” Waggoner said. “There’s really a gamut of products that are out there and it just kind of depends on the scale and the volume of those products that might be available.
“I really advise producers to do a more thorough and complete analysis of the products that are out there,” Waggoner said. “That includes both the macro as well as the micro minerals and, in some cases, we’ve also had some producers find some interesting elements like some heavy metals that show up there as a byproduct of the production process, or some artifact of the processes.”
Waggoner suggests producers interested in alternative feedstuffs reach out with their local extension specialist to get in contact with a specialist or a nutritionist that’s really familiar with how to evaluate these products and processes
He also recommends visiting KSUbeef.org for more resources. — K-State Research and Extension
