Recycled Green Waste

Posted by Chris Kerston

January 18, 2007

Many have questioned the sustainability of current ranching methods. Much of the ranching industry today is based on a system of cheap fuel, feed, and labor, that has not existed for 60 years. It is my belief that more livestock could be finished locally on GREEN WASTE. Every area of the country has some sort of agricultural waste product that rather than being discarded could be recycled and fed to animals to produce high quality nutritious meat. Such items could include rotten or unused vegetables, fruit and orchard waste, brewer’s grains, nut byproducts, grain products like stale bread, restaurant waste, and whatever unused commodity byproducts are locally available and currently not being used. These items could come from restaurants, food processing facilities, grocery stores or from farms utilizing byproducts or products unfit for human consumption. I think it is about time we value what we have locally available and find appropriate uses for it.

As corn finds other uses and fuel becomes a bigger and bigger expense it becomes increasingly economical to switch to local remedies. Often commodity wastes such as pumpkins in November after Halloween have no use and simply are left to rot. Pumpkins are excellent livestock feed and there are a dozen examples similar to that in every county in the country. Finishing animals locally gives land owners with small parcels opportunities to enter a high profit margin low volume business. Getting waste products dramatically cuts feed costs for the animal and has the ability to produce a very fine quality meat product. My wife and I have been raising steers like this for the last few years for our own freezer and have had great success.