Hello Amanda:

   You have asked a really good question.  Questions that many user of spent grain as a feed source for animals are asked for many times.  When spent grains are available, they are in large quantity.  For small scale animal handlers, use all of the spent grains in a short period of time is a challenges because they are wet. Even for a large animal handlers, it can be a challenge as well if they continuously receive large quantities of spent grains. This is because animals need a mixture of feed sources, and continuously feeding animals with spent grains may not be a good choice for animal health.  Having said that, what should one do?  The simple answer is to dry it.  Using energy to dry the spent grains can be expensive.  But natural drying takes time.  The good way for natural drying is put them on the top of screens from which both sides are exposed to the air and in that way, it dries fast.  Nevertheless, the dried spent grain still contains moisture, and can't be stored for a long time.  If so, it will be molded.

  If one can not use of the spent grain all for animal feed in a short time period, one can consider to use them in the compost pile.  The spent grains contain all types of nutrients, and the finished compost can be used as nutrient sources for field crop/vegetable production. Our Extension Office in Fairbanks has a spent grain publication written by Dr. Jeff Smeenk. That publication contain nutrient information for the spent grains, from which you can estimate how much nutrients (i.e. N, P and K and micronutrients) are in the given quantity of spent grain.  As such you can estimate how much money you can save from purchasing fertilizers if you are to compost the spent grains. 

  Please let me know if you have more questions!