Taste the rainbow, moo the rainbow.
Millions of red skittles that spilled onto Dodge County Wisconsin on Tuesday evening were intended to be fed to cows.
Smells like skittles
“While we don’t know who did this, it is certainly clear that it may be difficult to ‘Taste the Rainbow’ in its entirety with one color,” Sheriff’s Office posted to Facebook
On Wednesday afternoon, officials said they confirmed the Skittles fell off the back of a flatbed truck.
“There’s no little ‘S’ on them, but you can definitely smell, it’s a distinct Skittles smell,” Dodge County sheriff Dale Schmidt told local news station WISN.
Cows taste the Rainbow
These skittles were destined for the mouths of cows because they weren’t good enough for packaging.
Yes, they’re feeding candy to cows — and they’ve been doing it for years thanks to climbing corn prices.
Cows are being fed chocolate bars, gummy worms, ice cream sprinkles, marshmallows, bits of hard candy and even powdered hot chocolate mix, according to cattle farmers, bovine nutritionists and commodities dealers.
A former farmer told CNN affiliate WBAY that candy makers and bakeries often sell rejects to be used as cattle feed because they provide “cheap carbs.”
Carbs for cows
While corn goes for about $315 a ton, ice-cream sprinkles can be had for as little as $160 a ton.
One farmer said that the sugar in ice cream sprinkles seems to increase milk production by three pounds per cow per day.
Sugar also helps to fatten up beef cattle, but I think we knew that.
Liz Binversie, Brown County UW-Extension Agriculture Educator said:
“When you talk about feeding candy, it’s something that can help maybe supplement a small portion of the diet. It can be a cheaper source of feed for that animal but it does have to be done and given very carefully…Your body doesn’t really distinguish candy vs syrup vs corn vs whatever”
Just recently, Gizmodo reported that scientists recommend feeding cows onions to reduce their methane emissions. We don’t know how skittles are going to effect greenhouse gas emissions from cows.
General opinion at Interesly is that the defective skittle flavor should have been sour apple, as no-one wants it.
Skittle Hierarchy:
Red>Orange>Lime>Lemon>Purple>>>>>Sour apple
