Could a load of dry/stale bread be of use to a farmer?

[20200111]

Hello, we have two "bags for life" full of dry/stale bread and we're trying to see if there is anything wise we could do with it. We used to take old bread to ducks and geese in the park but apparently that's doing more harm than good. We seen to have heard that old bread could be of use to a farmer, perhaps for feed, is that true? If it is, how do I find a local farmer that would be able to make use of it? Is there anything else I need to consider? I've tried googling but didn't get anywhere. Thanks for looking

 

[Andrew]

Any smallholders nearby with a few chickens?

 

[Still Farming]

Location may help.
Most stock will eat it, subject to rules and regs. possibly.

 

[20200111]

Thanks you both, that sounds promising. I'm in Nottingham and we'd be happy to travel 10 or 15 miles and make a day out of it. I also work in Crewe a lot of Saturday nights if anyone on here is interested.

 

[Andrew]

Thanks you both, that sounds promising. I'm in Nottingham and we'd be happy to travel 10 or 15 miles and make a day out of it. I also work in Crewe a lot of Saturday nights if anyone on here is interested.

Railway man?

 

[bitwrx]

How have you ended up with so much waste bread?

If it's waste from a kitchen (domestic or commercial), any farmer should know that it's against the law to feed it to livestock, and for very good economic, social and - most importantly - animal welfare reasons.

APHA warns not to feed kitchen scraps to farm animals because of disease risk

Feeding kitchen scraps to farm animals could spread disease.

www.gov.uk

As a pig producer who would be put out of business by an African Swine Fever outbreak on this farm, I would very much appreciate it if you could dispose of your kitchen waste responsibly. The risk of cross-contamination with ASF or a bunch of other nasties is very real, and would be devastating.

Edit to add: feeding bread directly from a bakery to livestock is possible, but the bakery needs to be able to ensure that it hasn't come into contact with any animal products, and needs to be able to prove it. A very different proposition to collecting stale bread from a kitchen, or whatever.

 

[quattro]

We’ve some highland cattle and they love it

 

[Wurzeetoo]

Try some local animal sanctuaries or rescue places. I work for a large retailer whenever we get a chiller go down everything has to be disposed of I just drop it round to the rescue place rather than bin it. They are always grateful for it

 

[delilah]

www.farmgarden.org.uk

they will have a member near you

 

[Exfarmer]

Hello, we have two "bags for life" full of dry/stale bread and we're trying to see if there is anything wise we could do with it. We used to take old bread to ducks and geese in the park but apparently that's doing more harm than good. We seen to have heard that old bread could be of use to a farmer, perhaps for feed, is that true? If it is, how do I find a local farmer that would be able to make use of it? Is there anything else I need to consider? I've tried googling but didn't get anywhere. Thanks for looking

I think the notion that feeding bread to wild birds is harmful, has been well and truly squashed. It has been suggested that a lot of swans have died in the recent past due to the stopping of feeding bread.
However throwing large amounts of bread into small ponds cab encourage eutrophication which is bad news for many invertebrate species

 

[Yale]

Thanks you both, that sounds promising. I'm in Nottingham and we'd be happy to travel 10 or 15 miles and make a day out of it. I also work in Crewe a lot of Saturday nights if anyone on here is interested.

Save the environment....don’t waste the fuel.....compost it.

 

[badger nadgers]

Hello, we have two "bags for life" full of dry/stale bread and we're trying to see if there is anything wise we could do with it.

Take it down your local allotments and give it someone who has a few laying hens.

 

[Netherfield]

Save the environment....don’t waste the fuel.....compost it.

Fine as long as you can keep the rats and mice away from it.

Take it down your local allotments and give it someone who has a few laying hens.

Again ok as long as they don't get too much or the egg production will drop off through lack of protein.

 

[DrWazzock]

Bread sauce or bread and butter pudding before it gets too stale.

 

[Tarw Coch]

Bread sauce or bread and butter pudding before it gets too stale.

I gave that a like as I’m rather fond of both.?

 

[DrWazzock]

Reminds me of the Alf Garnett sketch where he was complaining that his wife wouldn't let him start on the fresh loaf before he had eaten up the stale on. Basically he said why couldn't they just bin the stale one and eat the fresh one to break the cycle of forever eating a stale one while the fresh one goes off.

Well I have remembered it for 30 years anyway.

 

[Dry Rot]

If you fall foul of the law, the people most likely to be looking for your blood are DEFRA Animal Health. So why not beat them to it and simply lift the phone and ask them? I seem to remember there was some licence or other I could get to take swill for feeding to my dogs but, frankly, that was a few years ago and I forget the details. But I certainly wouldn't chance my arm and guess! I've always found the people at the Animal Health department of DEFRA are actually quite helpful.

 

[bitwrx]

If you fall foul of the law, the people most likely to be looking for your blood are DEFRA Animal Health. So why not beat them to it and simply lift the phone and ask them? I seem to remember there was some licence or other I could get to take swill for feeding to my dogs but, frankly, that was a few years ago and I forget the details. But I certainly wouldn't chance my arm and guess! I've always found the people at the Animal Health department of DEFRA are actually quite helpful.

I think the link I posted above pretty much covers it: if it's come out of a kitchen, it can't be fed to farmed animals.

Am I the only person who remembers how the 2001 FMD outbreak was found to have started?

(Yes, I know there's overwhelming evidence that the criminally inadequate swill feeding practices at the Waugh's farm weren't the actual cause of the outbreak, but they could have been. Inadequate swill preparation is an absolute sure-fire route of transmission for FMD and ASF amongst others, so to mitigate the risk, UK govt has banned swill feeding to all farm animals. Don't feed kitchen scraps to farm animals.)

 

[Highland Mule]

Hello, we have two "bags for life" full of dry/stale bread and we're trying to see if there is anything wise we could do with it. We used to take old bread to ducks and geese in the park but apparently that's doing more harm than good. We seen to have heard that old bread could be of use to a farmer, perhaps for feed, is that true? If it is, how do I find a local farmer that would be able to make use of it? Is there anything else I need to consider? I've tried googling but didn't get anywhere. Thanks for looking

Two "bags for life" is nothing. Chalk it down to experience, don't buy so much next time and stick it in the bin and get on with your life. It's against the law for a farmer to feed it to animals, and a waste of petrol/ diesel/ electric/ the world's resources to take it anywhere else.

 

[Still Farming]

I think the link I posted above pretty much covers it: if it's come out of a kitchen, it can't be fed to farmed animals.

Am I the only person who remembers how the 2001 FMD outbreak was found to have started?

(Yes, I know there's overwhelming evidence that the criminally inadequate swill feeding practices at the Waugh's farm weren't the actual cause of the outbreak, but they could have been. Inadequate swill preparation is an absolute sure-fire route of transmission for FMD and ASF amongst others, so to mitigate the risk, UK govt has banned swill feeding to all farm animals. Don't feed kitchen scraps to farm animals.)

They don't say where bread come from?
May not be from kitchens??