By-Products Extend Silage Supply,
Provide Good Energy Source For Steers
ANDY ANDREWS
Lancaster Farming Staff
BROGUE (York Co.) Food by-products are not only a
good “stuffer,” making a farm’s supply of corn silage last
longer to a beef herd, but cheap feed, according to one
feedlot manager.
Andy Peterson, beef manager for the H.E. Heindel and
Sons farm near Brogue, contracts with several area food
processors to feed 1,981 head of mostly Angus crossbreds.
In operation since 1989, the beef and dairy farm is begin
ning to direct-market products in the farm store, Brown
Cow Country Market.
The cattle are brought up as feeders at 750-900 pounds a
piece from several markets in southern Virginia, the Caroli
nas, and Georgia.
As newcomers, the feeders are fed hay and silage the first
two weeks, and then barley. Eventually a by-product total
mixed ration, composed of pineapples, potatoes, com curls,
chips, and other snack foods, in addition to silage, is fed to
stretch out the ration program.
The pineapple shells are delivered to the farm two to
three times per week from Baltimore. Potatoes and other by
products are picked up at other locations within the area.
The material is hauled up in commercial by-product bins
which can hold about 30 tons each.
In the ration at the farm recently, included were popcorn,
pineapples, corn silage, barley, and urea, with a mineral
package.
In the ration at the farm recently, included were
popcorn, pineapples, corn silage, barley, and urea,
with a mineral package.
Andy Peterson has several years of experience
tending the feeder cattle at the H.E. Heindel and
Sons Farm near Brogue.
The farm feeds 1,981 head, down about 500 head from
their usual count. The steers are cared for in confinement
housing with alleyways. The cattle are placed in a footbath
about twice per month.
The calves, on arrival, have been pretreated and vacci
nated. The manure goes through floor slats directly to pits
which are cleaned out four times per year, noted Peterson.
Finished steers are marketed directly to Moyer Packing
(with some going to the New Holland Sales Stables auction).
Peterson, who has been managing at the Heindel farm for
about four years, grew up on a dairy in Wisconsin.
Peterson noted that the food by-products have a long
bunker life and can be eaten “pickled,” he said. A couple of
years ago piles of by-product stood in the bunkers for
months and the cattle ate the feed readily.
Using by-products “really saves on corn silage,” said
Peterson.
To the cattle, the high-energy product is a real treat.
“They just love it,” said Peterson.
Especially the potatoes. For whatever reason (though
probably because of palatability), if you start throwing pota
toes into the feed bunk, the steers will “fight for them,”
Peterson said.