Beer and Beef--the best of both worlds!

[PA Baker]

Iowa cattle lapping up beer-spiked fodderFarmers adding beer to feed, hoping to raise better bovines

The Associated Press
Updated: 8:57 a.m. ET Dec. 22, 2004


NORWAY, Iowa - Cattlemen are hoping to raise a better bovine with beer. About a dozen eastern Iowa farmers have been spiking their cattle feed with beer. So far, the herds are lapping it up, said cattlemen Robert Miller.

They like it so much that they hesitate to eat when their feed isn't mixed with beer, Miller said.

It began about a year ago when an official at Fleck Sales, a Cedar Rapids beer distributor, contacted Fisher's Feed and Fertilizer in Norway, a small town southeast of Cedar Rapids.

The company asked if the feed business would like to get free beer which had outlived its shelf life, not for its workers but to mix in with its feed, said Jack Fisher, the feed company's owner.

Fisher said research shows that beer has vitamins, minerals, amino acids, carbohydrates and proteins, which all benefit cattle's diet.

Beer is commonly used in cattle feed in Japan and Canada. The animals' complex digestive system breaks down the alcohol in beer, turning it into food energy, animal nutritionists said.

Fisher took Fleck Sales up on its offer and now the beer is emptied into 5-gallon buckets which are taken to feedlots where the beer is given away. He laughed when asked if he and his friends ever test the free shipments.

"We have to make sure it's safe for the cattle," he said.

© 2004 The Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten or redistributed.
URL: http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/6745340

[buckytom]

Originally Posted by PA Baker

They like it so much that they hesitate to eat when their feed isn't mixed with beer, Miller said.

i know how that feels!! :D

5 gallon buckets? hmmmm, sounds about right...

[PA Baker]

I figured this would hit close to home for you!

[DampCharcoal]

LOL! 5 gallon buckets? That's a bender if I ever heard one! Then again, I have been known to guzzle large quantities if the mood is right. :roll: I bet those are some really happy cows!

[Catseye]

[quote="PA BakerIt began about a year ago when an official at Fleck Sales, a Cedar Rapids beer distributor, contacted Fisher's Feed and Fertilizer in Norway, a small town southeast of Cedar Rapids.[/quote]

Can you imagine what it would be like if it was your job to answer this business's phone? "Good morning, Fisher's Ferd and Feedelizer ... I mean, Feedle's Fish and Fertilizer ... Ferdle's Feed and Fishelizer ... "


Cats

[PA Baker]

LOL cats! I bet it's a happy place to work, though, at least if everyone sticks to the cows' diet!

[Lifter]

Darn it!

Another "secret of Canadian Beef" slips over the border!

Lifter

[Bangbang]

No crapola :!: I always mix my food with beer. Whats food without beer.

[DampCharcoal]

Hm. I wonder how a scoop of chocolate ice cream in a pint of Guinness would taste?

[norgeskog]

I cook with beer (love cooking with any alcohol, enhances flavor) but feeding it to the bovines, might be interesting. Hope they do not get to bombed and get into a stampede. Can you imagine the headlines.