Corn distillers dried grains with solubles supplementation in a pasture-based beef production system

The objective of this study was to evaluate corn distillers dried grains with solubles (CDDGS) supplementation of August-calving cows or calves grazing stockpiled forage on cow and calf BW changes during winter and BW gain and carcass characteristics of the calves finished in a pasture-based system. The results showed that over the 2 winters, calves in the Creep treatment had greater BW gains than calves in the CDDGS and Minimal treatments. During the pasture-based finishing portion where steers were supplemented with CDDGS; it was observed that the post-weaning ADG of steers from the Minimal and CDDGS treatments were greater than steers fed a CDDGS-based creep feed pre-weaning. This increased gain by the lighter steers at weaning resulted in mean live weight and carcass weights, backfat thickness, ribeye area, and marbling score at harvest that did not differ between treatments.;Additionally, a metabolism study was conducted to evaluate the effect of CDDGS supplementation of cattle fed smooth bromegrass hay on the intake and digestibility of DM and its components of the hay and total diet. It was observed that increasing the amount of CDDGS supplement fed increased total DM intake as a percentage of BW and digestibility as a percentage, but decreased hay DM intake as a percentage of BW. This increase in DM intake and simultaneous decrease in hay DMI resulted in a quadratically increasing substitution rate of CDDGS for smooth bromegrass hay with increasing CDDGS supplement intake as a percentage of BW.