Iowa Farmer Today
11-11-06
By-product feeds cow-calf herd
By Jeff DeYoung, Iowa Farmer Today
HARLAN -- About a year ago, Jeff Juhl was looking for an economical feed source for his purebred Angus herd.
Juhl, who runs 70 cows, bulls and replacement heifers on his farm near here in Shelby County, has just 50 acres of pasture for his herd.
“I had to buy most of my forage, and hay was pretty expensive,” he says.
“I had tried soybean hulls but didn’t have too much luck with them. That’s when I started looking into the DDGS (dried distillers grain solubles).”
Juhl worked with his nutritionist and feed company at the Dedham Cooperative on the ration. Cows have access to all the baled cornstalks they can eat.
Rations are placed in feed bunks. Juhl says the co-op purchases the DDGS from an ethanol plant near Denison.
“It’s anywhere from 26 to 28 percent protein and 10 to 13 percent fat,” he says.
“The co-op delivers it to the farm, and last year we were paying about $80 per ton, freight included. This year, it’s gone up to the mid-$90s, but it’s still less expensive than corn.”
Juhl says he started feeding the product in the dry lot this past Dec. 1 to go with the cornstalk bales. He fed between 4 to 6 pounds per day of the DDGS mixture.
“We start calving around Jan. 1 and because we had such a nice winter, we didn’t need a lot of energy,” Juhl says. “The cows did really well on it, and we kept feeding it even after calving started.”
He bumped up the DDGS ration to 10 to 11 lbs./day for cows with calves, and says it paid dividends with the calves as well.
“After 30 days, those calves really took off,” Juhl says. “Cows stayed in better condition, and I think the milk quality might have been a little better as well.
“The hair coats looked very good, and the calves just seemed to be in better shape. I will definitely do this again during this calving season.”
While DDGS feed has been used heavily in feedlots, cow-calf producers are now starting to recognize the value of DDGS or the wet ethanol co-products, says Joe Sellers, ISU Extension beef specialist in Chariton.
He says there are many ways to use ethanol co-products with a cow-calf herd.
“Last summer, when it was so dry, a lot of producers used it to try and extend their pastures a little longer,” Sellers says.
“They are finding the combination of cornstalks and DDGS is a pretty good wintering diet. Producers could also use DDGS and limit-feed hay to reduce their winter feed costs as well.”
He says much of the benefit comes in maintaining body conditions in the cow herd. By feeding DDGS, cows stay in better condition not only during a dry summer but during a cold winter, Sellers notes.
“You are also going to see a reproductive benefit when the cows stay in good condition.”
He says the dried product is much easier to store than the wet product, but adds researchers at ISU’s McNay Research and Demonstration farm near Chariton are placing wet feed in silage bags to see if that will extend its quality.
Juhl stores DDGS in grain wagons inside a shed, and says it lasts for several months if it’s kept out of the wind and rain.
“It’s very fine, and a lot like working with sand,” he says. “It will find every hole in a wagon or bunk.”
Sellers says some producers have looked at using DDGS in creep feed. He says the pellets consist of half soybeans hulls and half DDGS.
“That makes a really good pellet, but you have to weigh the increased cost of the pellet against the benefit. Soybean hulls can be pretty economical because there is less processing.”
He says with more ethanol plants being built throughout Iowa and much of the Midwest, finding DDGS and other products is going to become easier.
“What we encourage producers to do is to make sure it is going to be cost-effective because the product is available,” Sellers says.
“You can get the wet product at pretty much the cost of freight, but it’s not going to last as long. You can also look into going in with several other producers on a load to help save costs.
“This is definitely something producers need to look into. When you can feed four to five lbs. of DDGS to replace six to seven lbs. of hay, it’s going to help your operation.”
Juhl echoes those sentiments and says he is looking for additional ways to use DDGS.
“When we turned cows into the pasture around May 1, we had three tons of DDGS left, so we fed it to the calves we were going to use for 4-H, and it really seemed to perk them up a bit,” he says.
“If you know how to use it, this is definitely a tremendous product. I just can’t say enough about how much it has helped our operation.”