We feed the bakery items to our sheep and cattle. We pay $4.00 a stack. It takes a little time each day to take it out of the plastic sacks and a minute to dispose of those sacks. We started them on the bread slowly and built up how much we feed, and backed the amount of grain we feed down in proportion. We have watched the condition of the livestock as the winter progressed. Our sheep and cattle have never looked better. The neighbor mentioned the other day about what good condition our livestock was in.(posted 9646 days ago)The animals are on to the bread in just a few days. They prefer it over grain and will walk away from the grain to eat the bread. Even the lambs are after the bread in a few days.
We feed whatever happens to be in the stacks. Usually they have poked a hole in each sack or made a cut. That is to discourage the use for people food. Often, the items are just barely out of date and many are carrying the same date that we get it. We take the nicest and fanciest for the house and share with our neighbors and friends on the day we have been to the bakery. We put scotch tape over the hole in the sack, and sometimes they have no holes. It is beautiful bread, and often fancier and more expensive than we would ever purchase. Our least favorite to feed to the livestock is the sweets, like cream sticks and donuts. They are messy to handle and sticky.
Biggest caution I would have for you, is to be sure you are actually getting a good buy. One bakery here is $12.00 a stack - too high. We pay $4.00 a stack and can get 7 or 8 stacks on the pick up, if we mash it down a little. That's $32.00.
Also, be sure you are going to be able to continue to get the bakery items consistently before you start to rely on them. One bakery stopped selling outdated items by the stack as animal feed with no forwarning. Some outfit contracted it all and we were left scrambling for a new source.