Bob Thornberg presenting the use of Distillers Grains in Range Land applications for an 800% improvement in the net Ethanol energy balance!  While also improving soil fertility and
animal health.

Feed First - Ethanol as the By-Product
(PDF)

                  
                                                     
                                                                                  Improving Nutrient Uptake
                                                 And Animal Health
                      

SweetPro Guide

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Cattle Feed Intake - Technical Bulletin

The Molasses Negative Associative Affect on Rumen PH

(The NAE Video Explanation 20.49 mb)

ProBiotein Background.mov
(16.45 mb download)

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Which Block to Use

Feed efficiency increased by 25%
Get 25% more out of what goes into your animals
Bottom Line Profitability!

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SweetPro Cost Savings - Inexpensive Hay

SweetPro Cost Savings - Expensive Hay

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SweetPro Cattle Video Testimonies

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Trace Minerals  - Importance

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ProBiotein^™: What is it and what makes it work?

What makes SweetPro^®’s ProBiotein™ benefit the animal so dramatically? The short answer could be: rather than giving an aspirin for a headache, we provide the ingredient blend in ProBiotein that can prevent the headache from happening. We stress the blend aspect because it’s a whole medley rather than a single ingredient that makes ProBiotein work.

The ProBiotein blend consists of yeast grown on a media of oats, wheat, barley malt and flax. Yeast excrete a beneficial enzyme which is used to break down the sugars created from starches in the grain media as an energy source they can metabolize and grow on. During the enzyme excretion process, the waste given off by the yeast is a beneficial nutrilite. Yeast when growing are also an excellent source of B vitamins.

Let’s look closer: In addition to the enzyme created by yeast, barley malt in the grain media has a tremendous amount of other enzymes in it. When you germinate the barley seed, it sends out these enzymes to start utilizing the seed’s storage pod of starch and protein, converting it into plant stem for growth. With barley malt you arrest this growth by knocking off the emerging sprout and drying the grain. Now you have a barley kernel with liberated enzymes that have no place to go. Some of these enzymes are designed to bring carbohydrate energy from the starch to the plant stalk, some are designed to carry protein and others are designed to convey minerals to the stalk. As an example, phytase for instance is designed to liberate and mobilize phosphorus. What does this mean for the horse? A much greater bioavailability of all the ingredients in ProBiotein. Many raw plants have a phytic acid that ties up other minerals, not allowing them to be utilized. However, when you germinate the seed and ferment the plant you eliminate phytic acid and make the trace minerals much more available to the animal. Further, the barley malt enzyme, alpha amylase, helps break down the rest of the starch in the other media grains used. These grains need to be broken down so that their sugars are liberated and the yeast can eat them, making more yeast, giving off nutrilites and in an anaerobic condition, making alcohol – a dense non-starch energy.

We cook at low temperatures keeping everything alive and do not distill the alcohol out of ProBiotein. If we were to distill, it would require high temperatures that kill a lot of good things. The enzymes would still be valuable, but no longer viable. They would still be a protein and digestible but no longer a catalyst that keeps on working for you. An example would be the difference between paint dried on the wall serving its purpose and paint still in the bucket ready for use.

The ProBiotein blend is soaked on our distiller’s (pre-digested) grain carrier (lick block or meal), which is a beneficial feed in its own right.  ProBiotein™ is stabilized by the anti-oxidant / preservative Vitamin E (much of which comes from wheat) and salt. Salt changes the osmotic pressure and stops bad organisms from getting a foothold. It does not affect the nutritional qualities of SweetPro supplements.

Germination and fermentation make for a huge enzymatic cocktail geared to metabolize sugars, proteins and minerals. If we can help the animal’s body do this better then we’ll see health and the utilization of their daily ration/forage improve dramatically. It’s what the body needs for growth!


 

Questions & Answers - Cattlemen's Dinner - Wilcox, AZ
(20.8 mb video download)

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The Historical Context:

Back in the late 1970’s there was a movement in the US which envisioned energy independence based on every farm having its own alcohol plant. Grain grown for livestock feed would first be fermented for alcohol and then what remained would be fed to livestock.

At a much earlier time, and continuing into the 1940’s, many small farmers steeped barley before feeding to livestock -- “slopping the hogs,” as it was called when feeding pigs.

While both of these areas faded over time due to various influences such as economies of scale, elements relating to the fermented feeds have been embraced and refined by SweetPro^® Premium Feed Supplements. As an example, early farm scale ethanol plants, which, of necessity, had used low temperature cooking, were unable to distill whole mash, so the liquid portion was screened out separately for distilling. The remaining thick mash still contained significant amounts of alcohol and all the yeast and enzymes used to ferment were never subjected to the killing temperatures of distilling.

Many of the dairymen using this feed found themselves in the awkward position of overflowing their dairy’s bulk tanks because the cows were so much more productive.

The steeped barley of yesteryear was often times germinating and thus releasing a multitude of enzymes needed for initial plant growth. Those enzymes coupled with fermented starches made a powerful improvement in feed utilization. But in the end, the cumbersome techniques and difficulty with storage and labor took their toll and these approaches faded away.

The science behind these low-tech procedures, however, was anything but low-tech. Probiotic proliferation was rampant, yeast and their nutralites increased, phytic acid tie-up of minerals was eliminated. In short, the science was exceptional but the mechanics were too limiting.

SweetPro has managed to overcome the mechanical limitation, seize the science and indeed, take the science to new levels with organic-complexed trace minerals and prebiotic oligosaccharides to deliver maximum performance potential. Low temperature cooking is standard, natural amylolytic, fibrinolytic and proteolytic enzymes are at work, and a blend of cereal grains (wheat, oats, and barley malt) plus flax are used in fermentation to assure the most complementary amino acid profile is available.

Everything about ProBiotein processing is geared toward improving nutrient utilization, which in turn reflects itself in improved animal health, performance and feed utilization. All without “breaking the bank.”

There are lots of fermented feeds in the marketplace, but nothing quite like SweetPro’s ProBiotein™, where the emphasis is on fermentation as the primary objective, not a byproduct. Also a blend of complementary nutrients is embraced over reliance on a single “silver bullet.”

Robert Thornberg
SweetPro^® Premium Feed Supplements
 

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Most importantly, you'll get "Growthy Gains" on thrifty calves, not fleshy, over-conditioned gains that dock your price at sale time. Is it more milk from the cow or the extra boost calves get from the SweetPro blocks that's putting on such good weight gains? It's actually a combination of both. And it's working.

 

 

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Heifers and their Nutritional Needs

The SweetPro 16 block is often called, the “Heifer Block” because of its effectiveness helping the heifer continue her own growth and maturity while nursing a calf and conceiving a second.

This is the toughest nutritional scenario for a beef herd. A key tool is a program that allows the heifer to get maximum energy value from non-starch substrates. When you maximize the value of forage, you minimize the need for extra grain (starch) as an energy supplement. Grain is great for putting finish on cattle but not frame. And the heifer is still growing her own frame at this time.

In SweetPro, there’s virtually no starch or sugar and minimal NSC (non-structural carbohydrate). Instead, the focus is on complex (structural) carbohydrate and high by-pass protein value in the
distillers grain carrier. We then emphasize a top quality vitamin and mineral package with organic complexed trace minerals to maximize bioavailability.

Your cattle not only get the extra benefit of the supplement’s ingredients, but they also get more out of the rest of their feed. 25% more! When heifers get better feed-efficiency on forage they do better and their calves are stronger. Fertility improves because her own needs are being met and nature says she’s o.k. to have another calf without waiting extra heat cycles to replenish body stores.

We recommend feeding SweetPro blocks four to six weeks ahead of putting out the bulls to raise the heifer’s plain of nutrition with a fertility-enhancing flushing benefit and increase the likelihood of conception on the first service. Then continue another four weeks with bulls out. Restart the tubs four to six weeks before calving and continue two weeks after.

Another very efficient time for SweetPro supplementation is just before weaning.

(1) Counter cows being pulled down by big calves.

(2) Cows are at their optimum efficiency for replenishing body condition going into winter.

Furthermore, calves benefit from licking the tubs. The heifers / cows will give more milk and calves also lick the tubs for their own “double” benefit.

For Best Results and Calves averaging 60 lbs. heavier at weaning – use SweetPro Tubs year-around.