feeding liquid whey to beef cattle?

eoinmk2

does anyone have any experience of feeding liquid whey to beef cattle? I will have access to about 1000 liters of whey a week over the winter. just wondering if I could use it to help reduce my meal cost over the winter if i could mix it with the meal.

anyone have any ideas of protein% ect?

cheers, Eoin

bob charles

allot depends on the DM, you could just stick it in a trough in the shed and let the animals drink it. you saying your getting a 1000ltrs it must be off a tiny processor so would be decent stuff. the whey nowadays from big plants isnt much good

eoinmk2

yeah, its off a small cheese making. I was just curious is all. doing a bit of googling about it and the general consensus seems to be that it doesnt go well with ruminant animals. we used to feed it to a few pigs we used to keep and they did very well on it.

bob charles

eoinmk2 wrote: »

yeah, its off a small cheese making. I was just curious is all. doing a bit of googling about it and the general consensus seems to be that it doesnt go well with ruminant animals. we used to feed it to a few pigs we used to keep and they did very well on it.

what you read on the internet doesnt always apply in practice:). super preservative, you could store a good lot of it together and put on forage pit etc. What your getting I would think would be decent stuff. you can give it to me if you dont want it:)

Markcheese

Be good for the cheesemaker to get it out and used.... Over time the whey isn't great for landspreading ... Should be high enough in sugars... Will most stock take to it fairly well ??
Have heard of it being used on silage,

eoinmk2

we used to rear cavles on it. we used milk replacer for a few weeks then then slowly started easing them in on the whey. how soon do you think you could switch calves onto just straight whey does anyone know? is there a certain period that you must feed them milk replacer for?

Markcheese

eoinmk2 wrote: »

we used to rear cavles on it. we used milk replacer for a few weeks then then slowly started easing them in on the whey. how soon do you think you could switch calves onto just straight whey does anyone know? is there a certain period that you must feed them milk replacer for?

Would have thought it's grand for older calves, or even to bulk out milk when they're eating nuts as well but it's not a complete food , most of the fat and protein has been removed... Plenty of sugars minerals and vitamins

dzer2

Used to get it from avonmore when we built the slatted house we cast a trough at the back of the pens to feed it to the yearlings. We had to block the first pens so the ones furthest away could get some. The cattle always done well on it would love to get some now,

adne

Markcheese wrote: »

Would have thought it's grand for older calves, or even to bulk out milk when they're eating nuts as well but it's not a complete food , most of the fat and protein has been removed... Plenty of sugars minerals and vitamins

Whey is full of protein, in fact the best protein goes in the whey opposed the cheese, this is why its so popular with body builders

Markcheese

adne wrote: »

Whey is full of protein, in fact the best protein goes in the whey opposed the cheese, this is why its so popular with body builders

I did say most, not all , can't remember which type mainly ends up in whey , how many litres of whey do you need to make a kilo of whey powder ...