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July 28, 2005 NDSU Research Shows Barley, Distillers Grain Good Cattle Feed Combination North Dakota State University research on distillers grain could benefit beef cattle producers, barley producers and the ethanol industry in the region. Researchers at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center say a recent study indicates distillers grain is a good protein supplement in barley-based growing and finishing diets for beef cattle. Animal scientist Vern Anderson, who was involved in the distillers grain-barley study, says distillers grains make a barley-based ration even more palatable and safe for feedlot cattle. “The digestible fiber in distillers grains and the bypass protein complement the nutrients and digestion profile of barley,” he adds. Distillers grain is a co-product resulting from the process that turns corn and other grains into ethanol. The ethanol industry is growing in the region, which means beef producers will have a readily available supply of distillers grains, according to Anderson. North Dakota has two ethanol plants and soon could have two more. One is scheduled to be built near Underwood this summer. Construction also is set to start this summer on a plant at Richardton. Minnesota has 16 plants and South Dakota has 11, some of which are very close to the North Dakota border. North Dakota, South Dakota and Minnesota produce about 900,000 tons of ethanol co-product annually. About 80 percent is fed to ruminants, or hoofed mammals such as beef and dairy cattle. “I think it’s definitely a unique combination of barley and corn in a way that uses both products,” says Weston Dvorak, barley utilization specialist for the North Dakota Barley Council. He adds that being able to use ethanol production byproducts with high-energy feed such as barley to create a safe and good-quality diet would be good for the state’s barley producers and feed industry. Anderson says barley generally is less expensive than corn as feed for cattle, and North Dakota produces more barley than any other state. North Dakota producers planted 1.6 million acres of barley last year, the North Dakota Agricultural Statistics Service reports. Greg Lardy, a beef cattle specialist with the NDSU Extension Service, agrees the research is encouraging. “It looks like a combination of barley and distillers grains are a good fit for finishing cattle in North Dakota,” he says. “This feed combination produced excellent gains in the research study at Carrington,” Anderson says. “The growing availability of co-products, plus feed grains such as barley, gives North Dakota feeders an economical edge for cattle feeding.” Past research with producer cattle at the Carrington center indicates North Dakota feeders have lower cost of gain from weaning to finishing by nearly 5 cents per pound. Anderson and research specialist Jon Schoonmaker conducted their research on 128 crossbred steers bought from a sale barn in Rugby and fed to market weight at the Carrington Research Extension Center. They allotted the steers to four treatment groups and fed each group a different diet. The four diets consisted of barley supplemented with dried distillers grain, dried distillers grain and urea, wet distillers grain, and urea. The cattle were slaughtered at Tyson Foods in Dakota City, Neb., when all of the steers reached an estimated weight of 1,250 pounds. The researchers then compared the effects of the diets on feed intake, gain, efficiency and carcass traits. The results show that both dried and wet distillers grain are a good protein supplement and complement barley very well. Wet distillers grain is preferred if it’s available at competitive prices, but shipping this high-moisture feed any distance will increase the price, according to Anderson. He says the next research project will determine the maximum amount of distillers grain that can be used in barley-based cattle diets. ### Source:
Vern Anderson, (701) 652-2951, vernon.anderson@ndsu.edu |
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North Dakota State University |
