Effects of Grain Type and Oil Concentration of Corn Dried Distillers Grains Plus Solubles of Digestion, Finishing Performance, and Carcass Quality
Abstract
Changes in ethanol processing have resulted in a reduction of oil in the final coproduct, DDGS, available as a feedstuff. Lowering the oil concentration can decrease the total energy in the diet and, therefore, could affect the animal’s performance. Therefore, we designed two studies where the objectives were to evaluate the influence of grain type and oil concentration of DDGS on finishing cattle performance, feeding behavior, carcass quality, and site of digestion. Our results indicated that steers fed the barley based diet were more efficient as they had a higher gain to feed ratio. Additionally, there were no effects of oil concentration of DDGS on finishing cattle performance or carcass quality. Finally, there were some differences in site of digestion between barley and corn diets however of DM, OM, CP, and starch however, no differences were found when comparing low versus moderate oil concentration DDGS.