January 4, 2007
 

More beef from DDGS

 

 

Supplementing cattle feed by dried distiller's grains (DDGS) could result in more beef during grazing programmes, a Texas Agricultural Experiment Station researcher said.

 

In a study conducted on heifers and steers, Dr Jim MacDonald, Experiment Station beef nutritionist, concluded this by-product of ethanol production could go beyond feedlot or dairy operations.

 

Considering the expanding ethanol industry, expected to generate an additional 200 to 600 million gallons of ethanol in the next few years, in the High Plains, production would utilise up to 214 million bushels of corn or sorghum and result in 1.71 million tonnes of DDGS, he added.

 

Though majority of this would be used by feedyards and dairies, but due to the sheer increase in availability, it could also be used for cow/calf and stocker operations.

 

The most promising opportunity might be for lightweight calves which are held for a couple of months before they go onto wheat, MacDonald said.

 

The summer grazing study using heifers averaging 600 pounds compared feeding 3 pounds of DDGS per head per day, or approximately 0.5 percent of the animal's body weight, to no supplement, MacDonald said.

 

Results showed an improvement in gain of a quarter of a pound per head per day over the control calves, he said.

 

In the fall dormant range study, steers weighing approximately 400 pounds were compared at unsupplemented, 1-pound, 2-pound and 3-pound per head per day rates.

 

Gain improved from just over one-half pound per head per day at the 1-pound rate to 1.75 pound per head per day at the highest level of supplementation, he said.

 

However, the effect was quadratic in that the more one supplemented, lower was the incremental gain, according to MacDonald. In other words, at the 1-pound rate, the efficiency of gain was about 50 percent, where at the highest rate, it was 40 percent, he clarified.

 

During the summer trial, the efficiency was only about 10 percent, he said, as both sets of animals were eating well on grass and the supplementation did not make much of a difference.

 

He concluded supplementation was more efficient on dormant range.

 

The economics of supplementing with DDGS would depend on the cost of the product compared to the value of gain, he said.

 

Further, producers need to run the economics in their situation to see if it is a good fit, he said.