Cattle fed with cookies after crops fail
24/09/2012
Brokers are gathering up discarded food products and putting them out for the highest bid to feed lot operators and dairy producers, who are scrambling to keep their animals fed.
In the mix are cookies, gummy worms, marshmallows, fruit loops, orange peel and dried cranberries, which replace the starchy sugar content traditionally delivered to the animals through corn.
"Everybody is looking for alternatives," said Ki Fanning, a nutritionist with Great Plains Livestock Consulting in Nebraska. "It's kind of funny the first time you see it but it works well. The big advantage is you can turn something you normally throw away into something that can be consumed.”
The US Department of Agriculture said last month this year's harvest will yield the smallest corn crop in six years due to the drought that is gripping more than half of the nation.
Share this story:
