Soy hulls

[Jake]

We used to feed a lot of soy hulls and ddg mixed. Ran it through a self feeder but consumption was too high to be real profitable.

The only problem with soy hulls is the protein can vary quite a bit from plant to plant and load to load.

I personally am much more of a fan of feeding protein to cows as opposed to starch in form of corn. YOu have to feed 8-10 pounds of corn to get any good out of it as you are switching the microbe population of the rumen from fiber to starch digesting microbes. If you stay with distillers grains you can feed similar energy levels without the swings in rumen bacteria population. Along with being able to feed lower quality feed stuffs with the protein compared to when you feed starch.

 

[TexasBred]

We used to feed a lot of soy hulls and ddg mixed. Ran it through a self feeder but consumption was too high to be real profitable.

The only problem with soy hulls is the protein can vary quite a bit from plant to plant and load to load.

I personally am much more of a fan of feeding protein to cows as opposed to starch in form of corn. YOu have to feed 8-10 pounds of corn to get any good out of it as you are switching the microbe population of the rumen from fiber to starch digesting microbes. If you stay with distillers grains you can feed similar energy levels without the swings in rumen bacteria population. Along with being able to feed lower quality feed stuffs with the protein compared to when you feed starch.

That's all well and good Jake but nothing varies as much in protein content as DDG. Unless you have each load or bad tested all you have to go on is the guarantee that comes on the tag.

 

[Stocker Steve]

I personally am much more of a fan of feeding protein to cows as opposed to starch in form of corn. You have to feed 8-10 pounds of corn to get any good out of it as you are switching the microbe population of the rumen from fiber to starch digesting microbes.

So if one feeds 4-5 pounds on corn grain per day the rumen can not digest it, or there is a small pass through loss, or ?

 

[TexasBred]

Not really if done properly. If the cow is accustomed to feeding on high levels of fiber and low levels of starch, then the rumen is equipped with more fiber-digesting microbes. Then, if the food content is suddenly changed to high starch and low fiber, the bovine would not be able to properly digest the feeds. This may lead to sudden decrease in pH, as the starch just sits in the rumen and ferments, and can cause harmful illness such as acidosis.

Done gradually and then regularly she should be able to digest both. Dairy cattle often get as much as 15-18 lbs. of pure corn a day along with grain by-products, protein sources and roughage and handle them well as long as you maintain a balance between the grain and the roughage sources...60:40 roughage to grain ratio being ideal but 50:50 being acceptable. Rumen buffers are often used with them as well to maintain the rumen ph and avoid acidosis and ensure utilization of all components of the diet. A few pounds of corn per day should do no harm what so ever and would be utilized by the cow.