Jump to content

Spent Grain


Curtis McMillan

Recommended Posts

I have just got done with my Mash, and I have LOTS of spent grain (how much time do I have to get it out, before smell?) (from the TTB, State, and EPA or FDA side) do I have to do any paper work to give it away? Do you drum it or how do you give it to your farmers?

is their any grain I should not give away as feed, and what do you do with it?

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We bough some used stainless IBCs and pump the wet stillage into those. The farmer picks up the full tank and brings back empties for our stripping days. Having it secondary ferment is dependent on many factors, including heat. In the summer time, our stuff gets a little white mold on it in a day or so. In the winter time, we don't have any issue with that.

Some guys here use plastic, others tell me that it warps when exposed to hot stillage, so I just went with metal containers. But they are not cheap. Since I'm now doubling my capacity, I have to have 4 more, or about $3600. Ouch.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

We've had good luck with the plastic totes that have the aluminum cage around them, even with the hot spent mash. I don't expect them to stand up over time, but they are a much cheaper alternative (our local farmer has dozens of them).

Another alternative that I've been searching for is the military water trailers (water buffalo's). Cheap, ready to roll, and built tough....

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 year later...

post-962-0-74397800-1347287149_thumb.jpgI lauter so my spent grain is fairy solid.

Shovel it into an open trailer and transport all of 30 yards to waiting cattle or sheep

Attached photo taken today from my distillery door.

My sheep crowded around their trough of distillery treats--yum

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 2 weeks later...

When feeding spent grains to cattle, you have to tell whoever you give them to they need to watch out for bloat. Make sure you're giving that spent grain to someone who knows about proper diets and protein intake for their livestock (bovines predominately, I think swine are better in dealing with higher protein diets). Dealing with bloat in livestock is an ass-ache, you don't want to be be an accidental cause.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When feeding spent grains to cattle, you have to tell whoever you give them to they need to watch out for bloat.

Are you sure SPENT grains can cause bloat?

I guess it won't hurt mentioning it to farmer just to cover yourself, but I think distillers spent grain is far less likely than fresh grain to cause bloat because it is already partly "digested", and is also wet.

I feed my spent grain to my sheep and cattle so if you can point me to some literature on the subject I would appreciare it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

When feeding spent grains to cattle, you have to tell whoever you give them to they need to watch out for bloat.

Are you sure SPENT grains can cause bloat?

I guess it won't hurt mentioning it to farmer just to cover yourself, but I think distillers spent grain is far less likely than fresh grain to cause bloat because it is already partly "digested", and is also wet.

I feed my spent grain to my sheep and cattle so if you can point me to some literature on the subject I would appreciare it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Our farmers sent a sample "off" to be analyzed. found it to be very profitable. they grind it in with a batch of round bales, silage, DDG, and grain. they love it.we send 2 plastic totes a week. we pump it into metal totes, let it cool over night, and pump into plastic totes to ship. we were worried about the plastic valves failing under the heat.

Brad

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks Pete. Point of clarification was to just mention that for some, spent grains might be an unknown, but valuable feed for their animals. Coming perhaps free, herd managers should be encouraged to check out the protein levels to avoid overdoing it and upsetting that protein-intake balance.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 9 months later...

I have heard of studies that dried distillers grains can lead to higher levels of e. Coli. Has this played out?

http://aem.asm.org/content/74/1/38.short

http://www.iowafarmertoday.com/news/livestock/link-between-wet-distillers-e-coli-strain-detected/article_5ec62396-b294-11e2-be18-001a4bcf887a.html

Are you sure SPENT grains can cause bloat?

I guess it won't hurt mentioning it to farmer just to cover yourself, but I think distillers spent grain is far less likely than fresh grain to cause bloat because it is already partly "digested", and is also wet.

I feed my spent grain to my sheep and cattle so if you can point me to some literature on the subject I would appreciare it.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Thanks for the links Sorghumrunner.

Unfortunately the articles are either badly written or incomplete. The articles were about the increase in E.coli in feces of cattle fed with distillers grain. Most strains of E.coli are harmless to humans. There was no mention that the extra E.coli would cause any problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

One of my goats got bloat this winter when he got loose and ate about a quarter of a 5 gallon bucket worth of spent grain. Poor guy almost died, but he still loves the stuff! I still feed them spent grain, but I go easy on it and make sure they have lots of hay and water to go with it.

I've got a pig farmer that takes all the rest of my spent grain. That's pretty much all he feeds them and they can't get enough of it. He had it tested and apparently the protein level is up over 20%. It's a great arrangement. I put full buckets of spent stuff out for him, he replaces them with emptys. I rarely ever see him do it, it's like it magically just dissapears!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I haven't delved too much into the subject, as we aren't making grain mash. But i've heard of this problem before. The first link was an abstract to a scientific article, so probably the full article goes into more detail. The second was from an Iowa farmer paper, so probably wouldn't delve too deep into it.

I think the main issue may be to make sure that ddg are not the only feed source being fed. And this is probably more of a concern on the larger scale.

Thanks for the links Sorghumrunner.

Unfortunately the articles are either badly written or incomplete. The articles were about the increase in E.coli in feces of cattle fed with distillers grain. Most strains of E.coli are harmless to humans. There was no mention that the extra E.coli would cause any problem.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

  • 1 month later...
  • 2 weeks later...
  • 3 weeks later...

Just a funny follow up and (stupid) anecdote: had one of our farmers pick up spent grain today. He hadn't picked up in a few weeks and was anxious to get his allotment. I was wondering why he was so anxious to get it. His reply: the hogs and goats preferred it so much, they slowed down their sweetfeed intake and lost 15% of body mass since. I am absolutely sure someone smarter than me can explain what happened, but I just thought it might be germane to the thread here.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

--- in a few weeks---- and lost 15% of body mass since.

I have been farming livestock for nearly 50 years. IF... his stock lost 15% body weight in a few weeks there is a serious problem, not just the loss of the spent grain making them picky with their normal feed.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

And Pete: Im with ya. When I heard they lost 15%, i was worried. Goats and hogs are not that picky; meaning, they wont turn their snouts up at sweetfeed.

They pick up today's spent grains tomorrow (we let them cool overnight before loading), and we'll mess with the Ph to bring it up and see what happens.

I have to check my husbandry text books and confirm the target ph for these lees. Low 6's or high 5's might be right on the Ph scale if I can recall. But please let me know if i am off.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
×
×
  • Create New...