The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Livestock => Pigs => Topic started by: devonlady on September 28, 2015, 09:06:31 am
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Spent brewers grain, to feed or not to feed?
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Wet or dry? What class of pig? Wet grains need to be fed very fresh as they rapidly deteriorate. Water content is 75+%. More usual to feed them to ruminants and fibre content is high. If handy and fresh I might feed a little to bulk out feed for a working boar and perhaps a very little for older growers but I personally wouldn't feed it to piglets, young growers or breeding females.
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Give mine some once turned there nose up an went back to the nettles
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I got some last week and have given them to the pigs. They didn't seem keen at first but soon learned to eat them.
No problems but mine will be back on growers pellets tomorrow, I wouldn't want them to only get grist.
I got them wet (in fact I shoveled them out if the mash tun myself) and reckon you have 3 or 4 days to use them before they start to go off (depending on the temperature).
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I was chatting to a farmer yesterday who says you can store it by keeping out the air (similar to storing silage).
The guy I spoke to used to get lorry loads of the stuff in the summer when it was nearly free, it was dumped in big hole dug in the ground, tramped down to pack it then covered with plastic. The pit would be opened up in winter and it would be fine for feeding.
I guess you could do something Silat but on a smaller scale by sealing it in a blue barrel.
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Not useful but, sort of on topic?
We get trailer loads to spread on the fields... It makes the BIGGEST bird feeder ever once it's fields are covered with every goose, all the little finches and birds, and then you can watch all the Hawks and predatory birds coming in - more exciting than to by far!
Also, one evening, went out for walk and my dog drank from a puddle at bottom of the heap - I shouted him off it, but few minutes later he was staggering all over the place! (I was panicked, but, chat to the vet and he was fine the next day.)
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Also, one evening, went out for walk and my dog drank from a puddle at bottom of the heap - I shouted him off it, but few minutes later he was staggering all over the place! (I was panicked, but, chat to the vet and he was fine the next day.)
I should be very careful of that - sounds like your dog has got a taste for beer, he'll be wanting to go to the pub next! :roflanim: .
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;D he loves the pub! He used to go to the Tappit Hen in dunblane every Friday, was VERY keen on the darts! Everyone said he was keeping the score :roflanim:
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Thank you all for your replies. My good neighbour gets spent grains from a local brewery and his pigs and bullocks love it and he gives me a sack or two a week. My old sow gets a good meal and the hens and geese love it!
One thing that confuses me is that the guy at the brewery told my neighbour that though it was fine for cattle, pigs and poultry it would give sheep "barley poisoning", seems odd as our sheep have rolled barley and have never come to harm in years! What do you think (I've never fed spent brewer's grain before)
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I have never heard of barley poisoning but spent grains from a distillery usually have the waste liquid from the still mixed in. This makes it high in copper which can harm sheep.
A normal brewery wouldn't usually use copper vessels though.
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Ahh! Thank you OW. I'll find out what they use at the brewery. It's a traditional brewery so they may well use old mash tuns.