Corn Shortage Prompts One Farmer to Feed Candy to His Dairy Cows
By Amanda Brodhagen Farms.com
Feeding candy to dairy cattle might sound a little strange, but for one dairy farmer from Northern Indiana – desperate times calls for innovative solutions. The worse U.S. drought in half a century has made it hard for many livestock producers to find enough feed for their animals and have forced some farmers to get creative with cutting their feed costs and maintaining their herds.
Mike Yoder, a dairy farmer that operates 450 dairy cows has found one alternative to feed his dairy cattle – ice cream sprinkles. "It's a pretty colorful load," said Yoder "anything that keeps the feed costs down."
Among the feed shortages and sky high corn prices a new market has emerged – alternative feed rations for beef and dairy cattle. Rounding up discarded food products including, cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peels and dried cranberries loads are being auctioned off to the highest bidder. Many farmers are taking these loads and mixing it with the feed that they have as an added source for sugar content that is traditionally provided through corn. For cattle farmers, feed is often the largest input costs for operators. While, feeding alternatives to cattle might have been the saviour, some resellers have capitalized on this new and emerging market and have tied the prices to match the price of corn.
Livestock nutritionists caution farmers to ensure that their animals are receiving enough healthy nutrients. Luckily, for cattle producers ruminant animals can safely consume a variety of feedstuffs. Some of the other more common feed alternatives that some farmers have resorted to are cottonseed hulls, rice products, potato products, wheat middlings and peanut pellets.