Oh, to be a cow on the Southern Plains of Texas

By Kay Ledbetter

Researchers discuss feeding cattle distiller’s grains

Nutritionists and producers alike will meet for a distiller’s grain feeding update on Tuesday, Dec. 9, at the Texas AgriLife Research and Extension Center, 6500 W. Amarillo Boulevard in Amarillo.

The program will provide up-to-date results of research conducted by university and federal scientists related to the feeding of distiller’s grains to beef cattle in the Southern Plains, said Dr. Jim MacDonald, Texas AgriLife Research beef nutritionist.

There is a growing supply of wet and dry distiller’s grains available for feeding to beef cattle in the Southern Great Plains, MacDonald said.

However, to date, most of the distiller’s grain feeding research has been conducted with typical Northern Plains diets based on dry-rolled or high-moisture corn.

Until recently, there has been little research conducted with steam-flaked corn-based diets typical of the Southern Great Plains, said Dr. Andy Cole, research animal scientist at the US Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service laboratory at Bushland.

The program will begin with registration at 8:30 am. Topics to be discussed at the research review will include the effects of dietary concentrations of wet distiller’s grain, supplemental fat, supplemental protein and urea, different sources of distiller’s grains and dietary forage concentration, Cole said.

Results of animal performance, carcass characteristics, beef-eating quality, digestion and metabolism, environmental quality, sulfur metabolism and intestinal microbial changes also will be presented, he added.

In addition, the results of research looking at the effects on performance of stocker calves and beef cows will be presented.
The program is sponsored by the National Sorghum Producers, Texas Corn Producers, Levelland/Hockley County Ethanol LLC, Quality Distillers Grains, Panda Energy and the Consortium for Cattle Feeding and Environmental Sciences.

The cattle feeding consortium is comprised of Texas Cattle Feeders Association, AgriLife Research, Texas AgriLife Extension Service, Texas Tech University, West Texas A&M University, USDA-Agricultural Research Service at Bushland, the Texas Veterinary Medical Diagnostic Laboratory and New Mexico State University in Clayton, New Mexico.

The program is expected to wrap up at 12:05 pm, followed by a lunch courtesy of industry sponsors for those who register in advance, Cole said.

A registration form can be found on the AgriLife Research Web site at http://amarillo.tamu.edu or by calling Coretta McClish at 806-677-5600.