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Greenleaf Farms

Ameraucanas and Araucanas on the range
(Forest City, Pennsylvania)

Feeding chickens meat scraps or tankage

Meat scraps are widely used in poultry rations to supply protein and minerals. The amount used is generally between 5 and 15 per cent. Milk and fish meal are sometimes used in place of all or a part of the meat scraps in poultry rations but tankage is another kettle of fish.

Tankage is a packing house by-product somewhat similar to meat scraps and it generally contains 60 per cent protein, while meat scraps generally contain 50 per cent, so far sounds good, but tankage can be prepared by cooking under live steam or by the dry-rendering process. It's hard to know what the packing house did unless they label that. The latter process produces a product of higher nutritive value.  "Stick," or the cooking water residue, and blood meal are often added to raise the protein content to 60 per cent, but these products are of low biological value and so  tankage may be of lower nutritive value than meat scraps and as a rule should be avoided.

Suki
12:00 AM EDT
 
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