Kentucky cattle farmer replaces expensive corn with candy to feed his cattle
As the corn prices escalate, one bizarre substitute is chocolate-laced cattle feed as a cattleman has responded to skyrocketing corn prices by swapping out the corn in his 1,400 cows’ diets for low-grade candy.
photo/hajor
The Peducah, Ky.-based WPSDLocal reports that Joseph Watson, owner of United Livestock Commodities, believes that candy is a healthy drought-time substitute for corn, even suggesting that its advantages over the vegetable go beyond price.
“It actually has a higher ratio of fat (than) actually feeding them straight corn,” he told WPSD, later adding that his feed mixture, which also includes an ethanol byproduct and a mineral nutrient, has “all the right nutrition for them.”
Candy “just as good” as vegetables does not need to be dismissed according to scientists.
But Life’s Little Mysteries consulted John Waller, a professor of animal nutrition at the University of Tennessee, and he didn’t seem the least bit scandalized by candy-fattened cows.
“I think it’s a viable (diet),” Waller said. “It keeps fat material from going out in the landfill, and it’s a good way to get nutrients in these cattle. The alternative would be to put (the candy) in a landfill somewhere.”
” Ruminant animals are very good at utilizing a wide variety of feedstuffs, because the microbes in the rumen can digest things that other animals can’t utilize,” he said.
Waller says that as long as a cow is getting the proper ratio of carbohydrates, protein, vitamins and minerals, it shouldn’t make any difference whether the rumen is churning candy or corn.
