Evaluation of Wet Distillers Grains in Finishing Diets for Yearling Steers

A feeding trial was conducted with 940-lb yearling steers fed 113 days to determine the feeding value of distillers grains relative to corn grain. Replacing corn and urea with wet distillers grains for 20% of the diet dry matter tended to increase gain with no increase in feed consumption, resulting in improved feed conversion. Replacing 40% of diet dry matter with wet distillers grains decreased feed intake without affecting gains, and improved feed efficiency. The overall average estimated net energy value of wet distillers grains was 1.20 Mcal NEg per pound dry matter. This experiment confirmed the observations in previous cattle feeding experiments, that for finishing cattle wet distillers grains have a high energy value compared with cracked corn grain. Another objective of the study was to determine if cattle being fed wet distillers grains could be suddenly changed to a different diet if the supply of wet feed was suddenly disrupted. It was found that if intake is managed during the change, that distillers grains portion of the diet can be suddenly changed from wet to dry and then changed back to wet after a week, without sacrificing performance of the cattle.

Responses to Adding Fat to Corn-Based Diets Supplemented with Urea and Soybean Meal for Finishing Steers

Yearling steers were fed corn-based diets supplemented with urea or soybean meal plus urea, and none, 2%, or 4% fat. All steers were implanted with Revalorâ-S and fed for 118 days. Adding fat did not improve performance of the steers in the feedlot or improve carcass characteristics. Feeding soybean meal increased rate of gain, improved feed efficiency, increased carcass weight, and tended to improve carcass quality grades compared with feeding urea. Adding 4% fat decreased feed intake, suggesting that corn-based diets may contain enough oil to approach the quantity of fat that can be utilized effectively in a ruminant diet.

Evaluation of Wet Distillers Grains for Finishing Cattle

A feeding trial was conducted with 870-lb steers fed 137 days to evaluate replacing cracked corn with dry and wet distillers grains with solubles (DGS) as feed for finishing cattle. Dry DGS was evaluated at 16% of diet dry matter. Wet DGS (WDGS) was evaluated at 14.6%, 26.2%, and 37.5% of diet dry matter. Control diets were supplemented with urea or a combination of urea and soybean meal. Feeding 16% dry DGS or 14.6% wet DGS increased rate of gain and tended to increase carcass fatness. Increasing the amount of wet DGS in the diet decreased feed intake, reduced gain, and improved feed conversion. The calculated net energy for gain values for dry and wet DGS were .92 and 1.5 times the energy value of corn grain. Economic returns declined slightly as the percentage of wet DGS increased in the diet, but remained above the two diets without DGS. The average benefits from feeding wet DGS averaged $25, $21, and $19 per head for steers fed 14.6%, 26.2%, and 35.7%, respectively, based on a formula price for wet DGS related to price of corn and including a charge for transportation of the wet feed.