Finishing steers on brewers grain

[HanknCali]

Has anyone finished steers on brewers grain? I've fed calves on BG for a while now but never finished them for freezer beef with it. I've always finished them on corn and sweat cob but am wondering if BG is ok to take them to the end? I'm wondering if the BG will give the meat a "bitter" flavor or taste different then finishing on corn and sweet feed? I should probably just finish them the way we always have but I am curious as to what the finished product would be like on straight BG. As you all know it's a lot of time and $ to finish cattle and I don't want to make a bad decision in the last 120 days and be not happy with the end product or "less happy". Just looking for input.

 

[Buck Randall]

Has anyone finished steers on brewers grain? I've fed calves on BG for a while now but never finished them for freezer beef with it. I've always finished them on corn and sweat cob but am wondering if BG is ok to take them to the end? I'm wondering if the BG will give the meat a "bitter" flavor or taste different then finishing on corn and sweet feed? I should probably just finish them the way we always have but I am curious as to what the finished product would be like on straight BG. As you all know it's a lot of time and $ to finish cattle and I don't want to make a bad decision in the last 120 days and be not happy with the end product or "less happy". Just looking for input.

I don't know of any issues with meat quality on distiller's grain, but you'll probably run into problems with sulfur toxicity if you're feeding enough of it to try to get decent finish on a steer. Keep it below 20% of the diet and you'll be fine.

 

[Richnm]

Wet DG is low protien. My cows lost condition. I will never feed that junk again.

 

[Philip-TX]

Would that be considered marinating them? :cboy:

 

[TexasBred]

Wet DG is low protien. My cows lost condition. I will never feed that junk again.

You probably didn't feed enough of it and they lost condition. The stuff can be as high as 70% water so you have to feed a lot of it to get any real "dry matter" into the cattle. 40 lbs. of WBG would give you approximately 12-14 lbs. of dry matter but that dry matter would be high protein, high TDN and good energy level.

 

[Richnm]

I was feeding a bucket per cow a day, with unlimited hay. That stuff is nasty. Your right wet DG is lower protien. I think my cows were drunk.

 

[Warren Allison]

I used to deliver hay to a man that had a contract to haul it off from a Budweiser plant. He had a mill that he'd put in round bales and loaders full of the mash, that would grind it up. He then had a truck with an auger on the side, and he'd drive by and fill up the concrete troughs against the fence. Looked like the steers were doing well to me. He'd keep them 90 days, then sell 'em and get another herd, about 4 times a year. His facility was about 10 miles from the brewery, and that stuff would be boiling hot when when he dumped it beside the mill.