Streeeeeeetching Feedstocks with Food Waste
With your Southeast Regional Ag News, I am Haylie Shipp. This is the Ag Information Network.
We are headed over to Pennsylvania today with a show that is a bit more lighthearted than some of the information I bring you here on the air. It’s the concept of thinking outside the box when it comes to stretching tight feedstocks.
Dr. Joe Bender, DVM and a professor at the University of Pennsylvania proclaims food destined for the trash could help meet the needs of dairy cattle…
“Probably the weirdest one we’ve used is recycled ketchup. It was ketchup that was a mistake and had too much sugar in it. Not good for people, but it was good for dairy cows. So, we replaced some molasses with recycled ketchup.”
It doesn’t stop there…
“We’ve done corn starch. We’ve done chickpea flour. We’ve done cereal fines. A lot of the chocolate products. Then we also do a lot of the bakery products, whether it’s pretzels or some kind of pasta, and some kinds of cereal become very common.”
Now this conversation could get out of hand, so be smart about it…prepare…
“Cows have a nutrient requirement. They don’t have a ketchup or molasses requirement, so they can handle it very well. Typically, some of these rescue ingredients or emergency ingredients, we’re using at lower inclusion rates, at least to start. If the economics work out and cattle performance is fine, push that inclusion rate a little bit higher.”
Joe Bender of the University of Pennsylvania.
