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Molasses for cattle supplement feed

Living in a sugar refining state like Queensland gives us easy access to a by-product called molasses, which we feed to our cattle.  If you don't live near a sugar refinery, its probably not worth trying to source it.  However, if you can get some molasses cheaply, it is a great supplement feed as, according to our text book "Dairy Cattle Science", it contains:
  • calcium
  • cobalt
  • copper
  • iodine
  • magnesium
  • potassium
  • iron
  • biotin + various other B vitamins
  • other trace minerals
These are all the good things in sugar cane that are removed to make pure sucrose sugar for us humans to eat, see why we shouldn't eat refined sugar?!  In Natural Cattle Care, Pat Coleby mentions briefly that consuming excess sugar in the form of molasses can make cattle more attractive to insects, so we don't feed molasses during summer when buffalo flies and ticks are a problem.  However it does provide valuable energy in winter when our grass dies off.

We have been buying molasses in 20 L drums and feeding a slurp to each of the cattle with their grain in the evening, but ever since my husband realised that it would be WAY cheaper to buy a 200 L drum he's been planning to make a tank stand.  And here is the final product, full of molasses and in service.



The main challenge was rolling the full drum off the back of the ute and onto the stand AND getting the tap at the bottom.  I can tell you that old tyres, a car jack and a determined husband were integral to the process....

Read more about molasses on wikipedia.

Do you feed molasses to animals?  Do you include it in your own diet?
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Comments

  1. UnknownJune 26, 2012 at 2:58 AM

    We feed our dairy cow a little grain to help with her body condition since our pasture is a work in progress. I know they add molasses to the stock mix, but who knows what else? Are you mixing your own grain and if so, what do you add to the mix? Thanks for the post- I never knew the "why" behind the molasses!

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