Die Bodenkultur - Journal for Land Management, Food and Environment

K. Buchgraber and R. Resch:

Conservation of pressed brewer's grains and their utilization in cattle feeding

1. The conservation of pressed brewer's grains with and without additives

Summary

Up to now great amounts of brewer's grains have been fed as brewer's wet grains in Austria. In summer there are problems with conservation as well as with a ready market. Therefore the brewing company Steirerbrau-AG has decided to increase the dry matter content to 30 % by means of a pressing screw and to store them subsequently in air-tight polyethylene hags of 600 kg. The transportation and storage of this product on pallets is easier in this war. The Federal Research Institute of Agriculture in Alpine Regions therefore made experiments to test the conservability and the feeding of dairy cows and fattening bulls with pressed brewer's grains. The wet brewer's grains showed a low content of lactic acid with 0.31 % in the dry matter, 0.7 % of acetic acid and 0.28 % of butyric acid in the dry matter. On the contrary the pressed brewer's grains was free of butyric acid but had double amounts of lactic and acetic acid. "Lactic acid bacteria + sugar" and "Maize-Kofasil" used as additives to the pressed brewer's grains caused a better lactic acid- fermentation but compared to the wet brewer's grains the quality of fermentation could not be increased significantly. Pressed brewer's grains do not need additives for good conservation and storage stability. On the other hand when ensiling brewer's wet grains effluent losses, butyric acid fermentation (Clostridia) and a higher infestation of mould and yeast will arise, which results in higher conservation lasses. Key words: Wet and pressed brewer's grains, conservation, additives, big hags.