Value of Distiller’s Grains as a Feed for Sheep

The rapid rise in the number of processing plants that utilize corn to produce ethanol has increased the availability of co-product feeds. Feedstuffs produced from the ethanol industry have now become mainstream commodities, particularly in the beef industry. For various reasons, however, the sheep industry has been slower to incorporate these feedstuffs. One reason is that information on feeding ethanol co-products to sheep is less available in both research results and educational publications. Sheep producers also tend to have fewer animal units, thus bulk commodity use is less common than in the beef and dairy industries. Typical dietary inclusion levels of dried distiller’s grains with solubles (DDGS) on a dry matter basis in feed for livestock species other than sheep has been approximately 20% for beef and dairy cattle, 10% for swine, and 5% for poultry (Lemenager et al, 2006). However, because use of DDGS is not widespread in the sheep industry when compared to other livestock industries, sheep producers seem to be less sure about levels of DDGS to feed. This publication will offer some insight into how to incorporate DDGS into common sheep feeding programs.