Dried distillers grain

Help Support CattleToday:

Farmgirl

Well-known member
Joined
Nov 2, 2004
Messages
766
Reaction score
43
Location
Huntingon, TX
Looking at feeding some dried distillers grain to lactating cows and weaned heifers. Any issues/limitations I should be aware of? I understand it has high sulphur content. Should it not be fed in metal troughs?

Thanks,
Farmgirl
 
I have fed my fair share of it. Not sure how high you can go. I've fed probably 6 pounds a day, for some extended periods of time with no bad affects. I haven't heard, that it shouldn't be fed on metal.
 
in our area it is pretty much a staple in dairy rations but I confess to not having kept up on how much they feed per head per day.
 
We routinely feed about 5lb/hd/day from Nov-March.
Back in 2007, we were feeding about 13lb/hd/day of modified distiller's grain product, which has a much higher moisture content.

Not sure what your concern about metal feed bunks is, but the sulfur issue plays into the need to consider total dietary sulfur with regard to possibility of polioencephalomalacia - but also will have an effect on availability/absorption of copper.
 
I'd think no more than the 5-6 lbs. per head per day or 20% of the grain mix if you're feeding a TMR. DDG is high in protein so dont' really want a protein overload. Additional grazing and/or hay should dilute the sulfur down to a reasonable level. If you want them to have more feed add some corn to the DDG. Should be more than enough protein and energy to keep milk production high.
 
Bigfoot":1z3o0av5 said:
I have fed my fair share of it. Not sure how high you can go. I've fed probably 6 pounds a day, for some extended periods of time with no bad affects. I haven't heard, that it shouldn't be fed on metal.

Toured local dairy after their expansion/new parlor addition. They have 1700 fresh. Guy giving the tour said they don't use ddg. They feel soybean meal gives them more production. I found that rather interesting since they are within 50 miles of 3 ethanol plants.
 
I'm feeding 3lbs a day to heavy breds.
My nutritionist said 2 was plenty but it's hard for all of them to get ahead of the boss cows if I go any lower.
Costing .25 a day and they are in great shape. Almost thinking I need to cut back a little before calving but they are all with their 3rd calf or 7th. No first time heifers.
You can feed it in anything. It won't be there long. Can't even feed in piles on the ground. There will be no waste. They will lick the ground.
 
During the first drought we experienced here, we fed DDG pellets once a day at a couple of pounds a day. Had one cow that wouldn;t touch it and later realized shw wouldn;t eat anything with DDG in it. The others did well with limitd forage. All calved with no issues, including first calf heifers, and raised dandy calves. One first timer raised twins that weaned at almost 600 pounds each. She didn;t breed back and when we weaned her calves turned into an idiot attack cow. She was excellent burger.
 
Amo":8g5t7hsw said:
Bigfoot":8g5t7hsw said:
I have fed my fair share of it. Not sure how high you can go. I've fed probably 6 pounds a day, for some extended periods of time with no bad affects. I haven't heard, that it shouldn't be fed on metal.

Toured local dairy after their expansion/new parlor addition. They have 1700 fresh. Guy giving the tour said they don't use ddg. They feel soybean meal gives them more production. I found that rather interesting since they are within 50 miles of 3 ethanol plants.
The quality on DDG can vary tremendously depending on processing. Soybean meal is very stable and may dollar out best for their operation. They might could use a portion of the mix as DDG but soybean meal being much higher in protein allows them to mix other items into their TMR that have lesser amounts of protein and/or energy and give more bang for the buck.
 
True dat, TB.
Local ethanol plant here removes most of the oil from their product, as they sell ethanol, corn oil, C02, and distiller's grain products & 'syrup'.
Have a friend about a mile up the road who's got a small (~300 hd) calf feedlot... he buys his DDG from a plant 85 miles away, that doesn't take out the oil... he says performance is enough better that it's worth paying the freight... but he's buying it by the semi-load, whereas we're buying 3 tons or so every couple of weeks, and don't have a place to store or feed out a semi load at a time.
 

Latest posts

Top