> Be careful grazing soy beans if seed
> is formed because the beans can be
> toxic unless heated.
Nope, not true, at least not for dairy cows.
I have a lifetime of experience feeding raw soysbeans to
dairy cows. Raw beans are absolutely not toxic to dairy
cows.
Generally speaking, it's much more economical to feed raw
soybeans produced on your own farm directly to the cows
rather than selling the beans and buying back protein
supplements like soybean oil meal.
Feeding the beans directly eliminated our costs for hauling,
processing and middleman markups.
The protein from feeding raw beans (up to 5 lbs of beans per
cow per day) is just as valuable as soybean oil meal. In
addition raw soybeans are about 20% fat.
Raw beans are especially good when feeding a herd that has
run down body condition from 3X milking or bst.
Generally the body condition and milk production improves
right away, with the addition benefit that the hair coats
soon become shiny. The hair coat benefit a significant
plus for someone selling breeding stock.
There are some cautions about feeding raw soybeans:
1) Ground raw soybeans can become rancid in hot weather.
This will depress dry matter intake (and milk production)
as the rancid odor is offensive to dairy cows. This
problem is easily eliminated by grinding only a few days
supply in summer.
2) Don't add urea to rations containing raw soybeans.
Many farmers don't even know if their bought-in grain mix
contains urea, so caution is needed.
Raw beans contain an enzyme called urease. When in contact
with urea this destroys the feed value of the urea. The
urea breaks down and forms ammonia which gradually gives
the feed mix a strong ammonia smell.
This leads to a dramatic drop in dry matter intake and milk
production both from decreased intake and loss of the
protein supposedly coming from the urea.
-
In recent years it has been demonstrated that feeding
"bypass" protein will improve milk production. One of the
simpliest ways to get bypass protein is by heat treating
soybeans. About 34-40% of the total ration protein should
be "bypass".
Heat treating soy protein makes is unavailable to the rumen
micro flora. It escapes them and hopefully becomes
available for digestion in the small intestine.
Unfortunately, slight errors in heat treating are common.
Often the soy bypass protein is over heated and unavailble
anywhere in the cow's digestive system. It ends up in the
manure pile.
There is a simple chemical test that can be performed by
ordinary feed mill or farm labor that tests for urease.
Lacking any other guidelines, heating the beans to the
minimum using this test is about right.
You would be smart, as a herd manager, to be standing by
when your beans are roasted so as to focus attention on
exactness in the roasting operation. Otherwise, you are
likely to get over-roasted beans which are a complete waste
of money.
--
Kindest regards,
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F. W. Owen
Owenlea Holsteins
9430 Spencer Road
Homerville, Ohio 44235
e-mail fwo@bright.net
home page http://www.bright.net/~fwo
voice & fax 330.625.2369
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