Marketing Molasses for Livestock Feed

Excerpts from the report: This is a report of findings in a nationwide "spot check" of uses of molasses as a feed for livestock. The purpose of these interviews was to determine and to publicize the experiences of users, so that others could benefit from these experiences. A total of 181 farmers, dairymen, sheep raisers, and feed-lot operators were visited. This group used more than 1 percent of all the molasses distributed for livestock feed, including mixed feeds. The group's volume of use was between 1/10 and 1/15 of the estimated total of molasses fed in liquid form on farms. Numerous reports have been published by various institutions and sellers of molasses regarding tests, applications, and results achieved with molasses feeding. Prior to this study, no analysis had been made of the experiences of molasses users relative to costs, returns, advantages, and disadvantages of molasses as a feed, to provide an economic evaluation of the results of feeding experiments. Although it cannot be used to represent the average of all users, the information obtained in the spot check indicates many of the practices and attitudes of livestock feeders that affect the breadth of the market for feed molasses.