D4-Lancaster Fanning Saturday, September 13,1986
Birds Build Better Beef
Their Dehydrated Poultry Waste In The Cattle Business
BY JULIE GOCHENOUR
Virginia Correspondent
HARRISONBURG, Va. -
Whoever said you can’t get too
much of a good thing wasn’t
talking about poultry manure. The
nitrogen rich by-product of the
poultry industry usually ac
cumulates faster than most
producers can figure out what to do
with it, and in amounts larger than
they can use themselves.
But Billy and Sandy Long of
Quicksburg, Virginia, have come
up with their own solution to the
mounting problem of excess
poultry manure cattle feed.
They take raw manure from their
family’s 40-plus chicken and
turkey houses, dehydrate it, and
sell the nutritional end-product as
a high protein cattle feed.
[hying poultry litter is not a new
concept, the Longs explain. Many
poultry producers have tried to dry
their manure and market it as a
fertilizer, often with little success,
Billy notes. However, the potential
of dried litter for cattle feed has
been largely overlooked by both
poultry producers and cattlemen
alike, Long says.
According to Dr. H. John
Gerken, Jr., extension specialist in
animal science at VPI, Virginia’s
land grant university, when broiler
litter is properly included in
nutritionally balanced rations, it is
more valuable as livestock feed
than as fertilizer. Yet beef
specialist Dr. Ike Eller admits
that, “Broiler litter in areas where
it is available is still probably the
best and most under utilized
feedstuff.”
The reason, Billy Long believes,
is because many beef cattlemen
are reluctant to handle or feed the
raw product. Before raw manure
Sandy Long displays some of the finished product, which
bears little resemblance to manure. TDN runs at least 40
percent, and protein content is normally 23 to 30 percent.
Junior Bazzte loads raw poultry manure into a hammer mill
before it is vacuum dried at 800 degrees, then cooled.
Product is then pelletized or sold as mash.
Billy and Sandy Long Found A Ready Market For
can be utilized in cattle rations, it
must be processed for feeding by
either deep stacking, ensiling
alone or by ensiling with com
forage. In either case, combining
the, litter with com silage or
mixing it with other rations is a
process many beef producers
would rather avoid.
The Long’s dehydrated version
of poultry litter, called Valley
Grow, eliminates this and other
problems associated with un
processed manure. Unlike the raw
product, dried poultry waste is
pleasant and easy to use and can
be hauled or shipped like any feed
product. Furthermore, once the
manure is in a more acceptable
form, beef farmers find the
nutritional content of the cat
tlefeed hard to resist.
“Valley Grow has a TDN (total
digestible nutrients) content of at
least 40 percent, with a guaranteed
23 percent minimum protein
although that usually runs closer to
30 percent protein,” Sandy Long
explains, noting this is much
higher than either com or alfalfa
hay. The dried poultry waste she
and her husband market also
contains phosphorus, calcium,
magnesium, iron and manganese,
important micro-nutrients not
always found in other feeds, she
adds.
The feed itself is a dry, rich
brown product that’ doesn’t
resemble raw manure in any way,
shape, or form .. . including odor.
Poultry manure from the farm is
hauled to their small dehydrating
plant just north of Harrisonburg
and deep stacked until it’s used.
Then the Long’s dry it down to a 10
percent moisture content using an
unique dehydrating process.
According to Billy Long, the raw
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Sandy and Billy Long with some of the "manufacturers" of their Valley Grow cattle •
feed.
product is first run through a
hammer mill and is then elevated
into a one-of-a-kind vacuum dryer
where it is dried at 800°F. for a few
seconds. From there it goes into a
cooler and into another ham
mermill with a one-quarter inch
screen to make a mash product. If
the product is to be pelletized, it
goes on to a 150-horsepower pellet
mill specially adapted for the
purpose. The mash and pellets are
then sold bagged or in bulk to
cattlemen.
The mash and pellets look like
any other commercial feed
product and mix easily with other
rations. Most producers simply use
Valley Grow as a top dressing on
their ensilage, Sandy reports.
“Although most cattle take to it
with their usual enthusiastic ap
petites, we do suggest that
producers gradually add the cattle
feed to their rations to accustom
the animals to the dehydrated
litter,” she adds, noting the dried
litter can be fed just like the raw
product.
“Dry, nursing and pregnant
cows can be fed a ratio of 70 per
cent Valley Grow and 30 percent
silage, ground corn, haylage, milo
and that sort of thing with
pregnant cows receiving 13 to 15
Crude Protein, minimum
TDN
Crude fat, minimum
Crude Fiber, minimum
Moisture
Ash, maximum
Phosphorus
Calcium
Magnesium
Iron
Manganese
Average Crude Crude
Dry Matter Protein Fiber TDN Calcium Phosphorus
Alfalfa Hay
(Early Bloom)
Broiler Litter 65-90 28 0 14 9 60 2 3
Dr H John Gerken, Jr, Extension Specialist. Animal Science. VPI &SU
4
pounds and dry and nursing cows
15 to 20 pounds. Growing calves
should get 6 to 8 pounds of a 50
percent ratio and finishing calves
40 percent Valley Grow, 60 percent
roughage plus molasses and
premix,” Long explains. These are
the standard guidelines issued by
VPI for feeding poultry manure,
she adds.
Both husband and wife feel there
are other advantages with their
dried poultry waste product that
cattlemen Mke. The dehydrated
Valley Grow is a stable product
that can be stored in a dry place up
to five years with no appreciable
loss in quality or nutritional value.
The vacuum drying process also
kills harmful organisms and
removes foreign objects such as
nails or glass that may have been
in the raw product.
Economics also make his Valley
Grow attractive to beef producers,
Billy emphasizes. A 10 percent
moisture content means producers
are getting more food value per
weight unit and don’t have to
worry about spoilage either. He
also points out that Valley Grow
has stayed the same price since
1983, and, since it is immune to
market fluctuations, can make
farm budgets more accurate.
Sample Analysis
VALLEY GROW
Dried Poultry Waste
Approximate Composition of Broiler Litter
Compared with Alfalfa Hay
18 4 29 8 57 1 25
Poultry waste is cheaper per
protein unit than corn, soybeans or
alfalfa and can stretch a fanner’s
feed supply while upgrading his
rations, the poultryman says. It
also frees crops for market instead
of tying them up as livestock
rations if demand is high for hay or
other commodities, and, in a
drought year such as this, can
supplement scant, poor quality
livestock feed.
The Longs sell about 300 tons of
their dehydrated poultry waste a
year direct from their plant,
Virginia Dehydrating, in
Harrisonburg. The operation is a
family corporation once owned by
Franwood Farms, another Long
family enterprise centered around
poultry. In fact, Billy grew up in
the poultry business and never
really considered doing anything
else. By the age of 11 he was
raising guineas and chickens and
after a year of college came back
to the family farm.
Billy and Sandy ran a breeder
operation for six years in South
Carolina before returning to the
Shenandoah Valley for good. Ten
years ago he and his brothers
bought Virginia Dehydrating as an
outlet for poultry manure and
operated it independently from
Franwood Farms. Eventually it
became Billy’s project and 2 1 *
years ago, he and Sandy purchased
the business for themselves.
Both Longs believe the potential
of poultry litter for cattle feed is
excellent and can offer a real
solution to both economic
pressures on beef and growing
stockpiles of manure. It may take
hard work, education and
promotion, Billy admits, but these
are things which poultry producers
have addressed in the past and can
do so again. Beef cattlemen have
much they could gam from
poultrymen, he hints including
some first-class cattle rations.
0.68%
0.19%
325 ppm
Percent Composition (Dry Basis)
0 23
20