WDGS

[KAstocker]

I would find a way to feed it for as cheap as you can get it, even if it's just by the bucket.

 

[BFE]

How many pounds of stocker will you be supplementing this summer?

I've got 20 hd x 425# so 8500# to start with. I've got a couple smaller pastures I'm trying to utilize better and get my feet wet in this game. I would eventually like to do 3-4 pot-loads a year between the smaller places and running forage corn behind short season beans through the winter.

When on grass/hay what would be the most WDGS a man would want to feed straight to calves 4-600#?

Would it work good as a stand alone supplement? I understand that calcium may need to be fed as well.

 

[KAstocker]

I think you wouldn't want more than half their diet from distillers, so no more than 4-6 lbs dry matter basis. The thing to watch for is sulfur content. You don't want their total diet to have more than 0.40% sulfur. Distillers can be 0.70% sulfur so if half of their diet is that and the grass and water doesn't have much sulfur in it, you are almost at 0.40% total. You would have to limit it more if you have high sulfur water.

I don't know how wet distillers handles. The dry distillers is easier to handle if it is mixed with something that isn't powdery, otherwise I think feeding it all by itself is fine.

 

[faster horses]

Be sure to check out what kind of mineral you should use when feeding WDGS.

 

[Stocker Steve]

Lots of work done in the past on supplementing grass cattle with a corn based mix. Problem with corn starch is it messes with the grass loving bugs in a rumen. So max without "depression" problems rule of thumb is 0.5% of BW. Sounds like 42 lb/day at starting weight - - so two 5 gallon buckets per day would work.

Some folks feed a lot more DDG because the ethanol plant has already used up the starch. Look up some of the Neb. grazing studies. There are a lot on the net. Last DG example I saw was at 23.3% of the diet. That would mean many more buckets...

Think % BW not lbs. per day to minimize rumen problems.

Think grazing not feeding. If you are driving around the paddocks with a TMR you might as well dry lot them.