Ruminant Nutrition: Beef: By-Product Feeds

During the winters of 2008 and 2009, a study was conducted at the Texas AgriLife Research facilities in Bushland, Texas, to evaluate dried distillers grains as a supplement to wheat pasture. Each yr, 60 preconditioned Hereford steers (initial BW = 198 kg ± 3) were revaccinated against viral and Clostridial pathogens and implanted with 36 mg of zeranol. Steers were stratified by BW and randomly assigned to one of 15 2.2-ha wheat pastures (4 steers/pasture). Treatments were assigned within 5 blocks of 3 pastures. Treatments were: 1) Control (CON)no supplement, 2) dry rolled corn (DRC), and 3) dried distillers grains (DDG). DRC and DDG were fed at 0.5% BW (DM) daily, pro-rated and delivered 6 d/wk. Full BW was measured and supplement amounts were adjusted every 28d. All steers had ad libitum access to water and a monensin-containing mineral supplement throughout grazing. Forage mass was measured by clipping at initiation and termination of grazing. Across yr, steers grazed an average of 128 d. Initial forage mass was not different among treatments (P = 0.49; Table 1). However, treatment affected final forage mass. At the end of grazing, DRC pastures had more (P = 0.02) residual forage mass than CON and DDG was intermediate. Gain was greater for DDG steers than CON and DRC (P < 0.01). Final forage mass suggests DRC depressed forage intake, while DDG had less influence on intake while increasing weight gain.