Too much distillers grain is not a good thing
KANSAS - Finding ethanol co-products to feed cattle may soon be like finding the Space Needle in a haystack, but could it be too much of a good thing?
22 March 2007
2 minute read
“What we are seeing is that the distillers are accelerating the fattening of cattle relative to diets that don’t have the added fat you find in the co-products,” he says.
“Anything you do to increase fat content in the diet is going to have an negative impact on yield grade.”
Reinhardt says current research indicates it may be safe to feed up to about 25 percent ethanol co-products on a dry matter basis.
“If you break it into 10, 20, 30 and a greater percentage of distillers, you see very little change,” he says. “But, once you go above 30 percent, you have some problems.
“Really, about 23 percent is where we’re at right now as far as a recommendation. Once you get above that, you start to accelerate the fatness.”
Feeding more ethanol co-products could partially explain the spread between Choice and Select cattle, notes Larry Corah, vice president of supply development for Certified Angus Beef (CAB).
He says cattle grading high enough to make it into a premium beef program could make $140 or more per head from what they would earn if they graded Select.
“If you break it into 10, 20, 30 and a greater percentage of distillers, you see very little change,” he says. “But, once you go above 30 percent, you have some problems."
Some states, including Iowa, have traditionally had larger numbers of cattle qualify for CAB and other premium programs because of better carcass quality, he says.
Corah says there are indications part of the country is producing fewer cattle that meet the standards of CAB and other premium programs.
“With Iowa, we’ve been able to identify a part of the country where there is a lot of quality beef, where a lot of cattle are sold on some sort of yield grade grid. But it’s going to be interesting to watch over the next two or three years as an abundant supply of (ethanol) by-products become available.”
TheCattleSite News Desk
