Feeding Potatoes to cattle

[Brian Sackett]

Do any of you feed potato culls to beef cattle? I am a potato grower in Michigan and looking for ways to make use of cull potatoes. I have thought about starting to feed cattle to use up the culls and the corn that we grow. Any Thoughts?

[David Ernst]

Sounds like a great idea , and would provide great starch. Check on feeding restrictions: if can only use for so much of the ration for health reasons, or do they need to be ground or anything to be digested. I don't live near any potato growers and have never tried it, but would love to hear what you learn.

[Grant Hildabrand]

good luck with that! I look forward to hearing your results. There aren't very many potatoes grown here, but a few years ago a farmer sold a lot of pumpkins to be fed to cattle. I'm always interested to see how those types of things work out.

[Anna Clark]

Years ago things got so tight we fed cull potatoes to our horses. They loved 'em! They also came though the winter fat and happy and their coats were gorgeous. Our neighbor (the potato farmer) also fed his cattle potatoes, although I don't know if he chopped them up or not since bovines have different teeth. We just dumped the potatoes right out of the burlap bags and the horses ate them like apples.

[David Ernst]

Brian, are you feeding potatoes? How is it working out?

[Garrett Mattox]

I've never known of potatoes being used as feed. Down the road from me there is a guy who runs a produce stand. He sells a lot of bell peppers and what he doens't use he feeds to the cattle on his feedlot.

[Scott Gross]

Hi Brian. We feed all of our potato culls. The cows love them. My uncle was one of the guys at your farm with lenco this fall. He was pretty impressed with the digger. Lenco is proposing to bring one out west here to try for us. I think it would be an interesting experience.

[Brian Sackett]

Hi Scott. I had a chance to talk with your uncle and the other guys. It is always really interesting to be able to talk with guys from other areas. We all have different issues to deal with and different ways of doing things. I think if you guys run a Lenco you will be impressed.

[Brooke Steiner]

Hi Brian, Just wondering what you found out about feeding potatoes to cattle, we raise holstein steers and are not to far from you,  I have heard other guys that do feed potatoes but have not heard of the results.  this may be a food source we could tap into,  you know corn is not cheap and we are always looking for alternatives.

[Chris Dunphy]

Hello brian i usually feed my cattle my leftovers from my produce operation. They eat the potatoes very well. They have ate them whole and chopped up.

[Melonie Smith]

I feed my calves potatoes but have to slice them or they wont eat them but i wouldn't recommend a steady diet of it