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April 1, 2005 Poor Corn Crop May Be Good Livestock Feed North Dakota’s 2004 corn crop may not have been as poor as producers feared. Research at North Dakota State University’s Carrington Research Extension Center during the winter indicates that last year’s high-moisture corn has considerably more value as livestock feed than anyone imagined. “We’re comparing the low-test weight, high-moisture corn to dry, high-quality corn, and we’re really surprised with the results,” said Vern Anderson, an animal scientist at the center. Last year’s unusually cool, wet weather throughout most of the state, plus frost in early June and mid-August, resulted in thousands of acres of corn that didn’t reach maturity. Carrington center researchers, working with a local commercial feedlot, stored some of the unmarketable wet and immature corn grain as silage. They processed the corn through a tub grinder and packed it with tractors to exclude air. Later they fed it to 96 steers in finishing diets at the center’s feedlot. The immature corn had an average test weight of 42 pounds per bushel and was stored at a 35 percent moisture content, compared with a test weight of 53 to 54 pounds per bushel and 15 percent moisture content for good-quality corn. “We expected lower performance from the steers on feed,” Anderson said. “But the cattle fed the high-moisture corn are eating the same amount of dry matter and gaining the same weight as cattle fed high-quality corn. And they’re gaining very impressively at about 4 pounds a day.” Greg Lardy, an NDSU Extension Service beef cattle specialist, said the preliminary results from this study are good news because they indicate that high-moisture corn with a light test weight can be an effective feed for growing and finishing cattle. The cattle in the test are heading to slaughter soon, so in a few weeks center researchers should know what impact the high-moisture corn had on dressing percent; carcass quality traits, including marbling scores; and the economics of feeding. The wet corn study is one of numerous research and educational projects at the center in three main areas - cropping systems, livestock development and feedlot management. Doing research in all three areas in one place makes sense because the center’s 120-head beef cow herd eats the residue and byproducts from the crops raised there for research, which in turn provides the cattle for research at the center’s feedlot, Anderson said. Research focuses on several areas, including crop variety evaluation, crop rotation, dryland and irrigated crop production, alternative crop development, integrating crops and livestock systems, beef feedlot nutrition and management, cow/calf production, sustainable agricultural practices, foundation seed stock production, fostering the development of agricultural enterprises, and evaluating horticultural and forestry varieties. “NDSU animal scientists at Carrington, Fargo and Dickinson have written the book on feeding field peas to beef cattle,” Anderson said. “This new and exciting feed grain will have a positive effect on livestock production in the northern Plains states and provinces.” Center researchers also have proved that despite perceived drawbacks such as cold, snowy winters, North Dakota can be competitive in the feedlot business, he said. That’s because North Dakota has the lowest cost feed of any state and the feed isn’t in much demand in the state. Instead, more than 90 percent of the state’s grain is exported, he said. Other specific studies at the center have focused on the use of barley in growing and finishing diets, and protein supplementation with distillers grain. In addition, studies have explored flax, chickpeas and lentils in feedlot diets and the use of soybean hulls in diets for newly weaned calves. Researchers also compared different bedding materials on feedlot performance and composted manure, and determined that adding fly ash to the feedlot pen surface can reduce mud during spring thaw and summer rains and improve animal health and performance. Feedlot research at the center has expanded dramatically in the last 10 years, with at least five trials being conducted per year, according to Anderson. A new feed mill constructed in 2002 improved the efficiency and flexibility of feedlot research. Many of the center’s research projects are collaborative efforts with Animal and Range Sciences Department faculty and graduate students, and NDSU’s Dickinson and Central Grasslands Research Extension Centers. “The beef cow herd generates approximately $75,000 each year for the Carrington center through the sale of calves, cull cows, straw, screenings and other home-grown feeds,” Anderson said. It also has brought in an average of $40,000 per year in research grants in the last 10 years. Research in feeds and feeding conducted at the center is in demand worldwide, and center researchers present their findings throughout the United States and in other countries. ### Source:
Vern Anderson, (701) 652-2951, vernon.anderson@ndsu.edu |
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