Question:

Does the byproduct from ethanol have any nutritional value?

by  |  earlier

0 LIKES UnLike

A few other ranch managers and I have thought about feeding this to our local deer herds. Seeing as it is relatively inexpensive and increasingly abundant.

 Tags:

   Report

3 ANSWERS


  1. yes ddg is 24-26%protein deer love it


  2. Dried distillers grains (DDG) are becoming more popular as a supplemental feed because they are a byproduct of the ethanol industry. A good use for DDG is when feeding poor quality hay or poor quality stockpile. A couple of pounds of DDG per head per day may not seem like much but it often provides enough energy and protein to poor quality forages to meet the nutritional needs of livestock.  

    It should also work well as a complementary feed for your deer herds, giving them additional energy and protein.

  3. It depends on WHAT byproduct you are talking about.  I'm guessing you are talking about corn, since that is what most of it is made from.  Personally, I will not suport the corn/ethanol cycle.  It's a total dead end cycle, with the return from the fuel used to grown the corn vs. the ethanol produced being EXTREMELY poor.

    We grow rapeseed (canola) to produce fuel for our farm.  The squeezings are fed to our meat goats.  A very healthy product for them.

    Deer are rumenents also.  NO ruminants do well with corn products (cows, goats, sheep, deer, elk, ect).  It messes far too much with the acid levels in their rumens, and causes all sorts of health problems.  

    Personally I wouldn't feed that garbage to the deer, you will be shortening their lifespan.

    The rumen bugs produce an enzyme called cellulase

    which degrades/digests cellulose (forage,hay grass etc).

    As the carbodhydrate portion of the grass is fermented,fatty acids are formed.As long as the animal is 100% on grass,these fatty acids do not affect the rumen pH as they pass rapidly through the rumen wall and into the blood stream.

    However if you feed a ruminant animal grain the rumen microbes can break down the starch in the grain into fatty acids faster then they can be passed across the rumen wall. The net result is a drop in the rumen pH.

    If the rumen pH drops below 6.2 the cellulase is deactivated and the animal can no longer digest cellulose.However the microbes can continue to digest the starch down to a very acid level of 5.3 or 5.4.

    To me this means once you feed grain the animal is living off the grain and gets no benefit from the forage it injests.

    So in effect, you could be helping the local deer to STARVE TO DEATH.

    Remember they pour that c**p into cattle, both beef and dairy.  Beef cattle do not live beyond two years.  Dairy cattle rarely beyond 5-7 years.  Deer in the wild routinely live 15-20 years.  

    You will serriously damage you areas wild deer population.

    ~Garnet

    Homesteading/Farming over 20 years

    Study of ruminant digestion systems since 1999

    P.S.  I went away, and have been thinking about your question a lot of the day.  You would have no way of controling how much of the byproduct any one deer ate.  It is highly likely the deer would be total gluttons, the way any three year old child would be if given unresticted access to a birthday cake.

    If the deer made gluttons of themselves, they could go into a state called acidotic.  The grains and the gas build up in the rumen from the grains will produce a GREAT deal of acid, and send the deer into an acidotic state.  Without Vetrinary care, namely stabing a hole into the rumen from the outside of the animal, releasing the gas, and scooping out the grain, the deer will die in horrible agony.

    The highest ranking deer will of course have the top access to the most mash (byproduct) you spread.  The lower ranking deer with have to wait their turn.  So you will most likely kill off the top ranking, and in best condition deer first.  That would leave the population to try and recover from lower ranking, poorer body condition deer.  It will also mean the predators, like coyotes will have a much easier winter, and more of them will survive to prey on the deer and fawns next year.

Question Stats

Latest activity: earlier.
This question has 3 answers.

BECOME A GUIDE

Share your knowledge and help people by answering questions.