Feeding Performance of Cattle Fed Stored WDGS

All of the stored material has been fed to cattle without problems. However, five experiments were designed to test the stored mixtures when fed to cattle at the University of Nebraska. The first experiment (Exp. 1) compared feeding WDGS mixed with 35% grass hay and stored in a bunker (average of the 30% and 40% grass hay mixtures with WDGS as they were combined during feeding). The mixture was limit-fed to cows compared to feeding more traditional forage diets ad libitum. No problems were observed.

In year two (Exp. 2), 70 non-lactating, non-pregnant beef cows (1,303 + 139 lb.) were used to evaluate the performance of limit-fed diets containing either bunkered WDGS or bunkered distillers solubles compared to a forage-based control diet (Kovarik et al., 2008). Pens (3 per treatment) were assigned randomly to treatment. Wet DGS and solubles were stored in a bunker with ground (7-in. screen) corn stalks 30 days prior to the start of the trial. Solubles were mixed with 59% corn stalks (41% solubles) while WDGS were stored in combination with 30% corn stalks (DM basis). Diets were fed for 76 days and formulated to maintain cow bodyweight (BW). The WDGS diet contained 41% WDGS and 59% corn stalks with intake limited to 17 lb./day. Corn stalks were added to the mixed material for diets to contain 59% total stalks. The distillers solubles diet contained 41% distillers solubles and 59% corn stalks with intake limited to 17 lb./day. The control diet contained 43% bromegrass hay, 34% corn stalks and 23% alfalfa haylage and fed ad libitum (22.8 lb./day intake). Average daily gain (ADG) tended (P=0.09) to be greater for WDGS (0.82 lb./day) treatment compared to the control treatment (0.44 lb./day) with cows limit fed the solubles mix being intermediate (0.68 lb./day). These data suggest that cows limit fed a diet of either WDGS or solubles stored in a bunker with ground corn stalks has no negative impacts on performance compared to more traditional, ad-libitum fed forage diets.

Two growing experiments (Exp. 3 and Exp. 4) were conducted to evaluate WDGS mixed and stored with wheat straw (Nuttleman et al., 2008). In Exp. 3, 93 crossbred steer calves were individually fed to evaluate fed at 4 levels (15, 20, 25 or 30%). An additional treatment was included where 30% WDGS and 30% stalks were fed fresh daily to compare performance of stored (ensiled) versus non-ensiled WDGS and stalks. Steers fed increasing levels of either solubles or WDGS resulted in a linear increase in ADG and improvement in feed conversion. Calves fed solubles gained less (1.03 vs. 1.26 lb./day) and had greater feed conversion (feed:gain; 15.6 vs. 12.5) compared to calves fed WDGS diets when averaged across all levels of supplementation in this study. When calves were fed 30% WDGS and 30% stalks that were mixed fresh daily (non-ensiled), calves had lower DMI (12.1 lb./day), ADG (1.01 lb./day) and poorer feed:gain (11.9) than calves fed stored (ensiled) WDGS with stalks (14.1, 1.43 and 9.8, for DMI, ADG and feed:gain, respectively). Feeding ensiled solubles or WDGS mixed with stalks improve performance of backgrounding calves fed grass hay. It appears that ensiling WDGS with stalks results in better feeding values than solubles stored with stalks. Likewise, storing WDGS with stalks appears to yield equal or better feeding values than mixing fresh daily, as DMI and ADG were improved in this study.

For more information or to request additional copies of this manual, contact the Nebraska Corn Board at 1-800-632-6761 or e-mail kelly.brunkhorst@nebraska.gov

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Date published: May, 2008