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An Iowa farmer has shared the exact reason cows across America are fed Skittles—and to say the internet is shocked is an understatement.
Dairy farmer Dan, @iowadairyfarmer, took to TikTok to explain the strange food choice in a video with over 3.6 million views. On his account, Dan regularly gives insights into the farming industry that many have no idea about.
It might sound like a surprising food choice, but many farmers up and down the country choose to feed their cows skittles, explained Dan.
Images of cows snacking on candy bags might come to mind, but that's far from the reality of it all. "What a cow eats every day is called a totally mixed ration," explained Dan.
Farmers make the ration by mixing various food, grains and nutrients together in one using a machine, in a bid to make every bite identical.
"So the cow gets the exact same bite, every single hour of every single day because cows love consistency," he said. The ration is a "specially formulated, regularly balanced diet," which leads to the use of Skittle.
Farmers add Skittles to the mix as a sugar and energy source for the cows.
@iowadairyfarmer Reply to @butterflywandress cows are amazing at utilizing things humans don't want. Skittles are simply a different energy source for the cow, absolutely nothing wrong with it.
♬ original sound - Dan
"We're not force feeding cows bags and bags of Skittles on end," explained Dan. "We're not doing that to try and trick the cow into eating more of this or making it more addictive—we're putting a little bit of sugar into their diet, because a little bit of sugar in their diet is a good thing."
He explained, however, that not all farmers use candy in their mix, including him.
Instead, only farmers who live in a close proximity to a candy factory will likely use them, able to purchase them at discounted rates, often due to defective appearances.
For Dan, spreading information about his job on TikTok is hugely important, he told Newsweek. "Long story short, less than 1 percent of the population produces food for the whole country," he wrote in an e-mail. "There's a massive disconnect between who eats the food and who grows the food. I thought I would run out of content ideas a long time ago but it's amazing to me how much people don't know about the dairy industry."
News of Skittles in the farming industry first came to the forefront outside of the industry in 2017, when CNN broke a story of a road in Wisconsin, mysteriously littered with hundreds of thousands of red Skittles.
Locals were bewildered by the mess, but it was soon figured out to have fallen off a truck hauling the candy to be used as cattle feed.
According to CNN, candy has been used in feed for decades but became increasingly popular in 2021, when corn prices skyrocketed, meaning farmers sought out cheaper alternatives.
Unsurprisingly, news of animals eating candy left people unsure on the practice, but experts remain adamant that all is good when it comes to cows and candy.
"It keeps fat material from going out in the landfill, and it's a good way to get nutrients in these cattle," John Waller, professor of animal nutrition at the University of Tennessee told Live Science. "The alternative would be to put [the candy] in a landfill somewhere."
Update 04/20/22, 3:51 a.m. ET: This article was updated with comment from Dan.
