High price of corn forcing farmers to feed candy to livestock
MAYFIELD, Ky. - At Mayfield's United Livestock Commodities, owner Joseph Watson is tweaking the recipe for success.
"Just to be able to survive, we have to look at other sources for nutrition," he said.
His 1,400 cattle are no longer feeding off corn. The prices, Watson said, are too high to keep in stock. So earlier this year, he began to buy second hand candy.
"It actually has a higher ratio of fat then actually feeding them straight corn," Watson said.
Which is important, because all of the cattle will be brought to slaughter. Watson wants them to gain weight and by feeding them chocolate, it gets the job done.
"It's hard to believe it will work but we've already seen the results of it now, so we're pretty happy with it," he said with a smile.
Watson believes it is healthy. He monitors the cattle's daily intake and said there haven't been any health problems and the proof is in their weight.
"This ration is balanced to have not too much fat in it. It's got all the right nutrition for them," Watson said.
Watson mixes the candy with an ethanol by product and a mineral nutrient. The packaged candy comes from various companies at a discounted rate because it's not fit for store shelves.
"Salvage is a problem for a lot of these companies and they're proud to have a place to go with it," he said.
