We have been feeding our cows 30#s of wet distillars grain per head per day with all the bullfrog alfalfa they want.They are in very good condition.The calves being born are running about 7 to 10 #s heavier than last year.
We are also feeding it to our replacement heifers at a rate of 12#s per day wet or about 4#s dry and all the good grass hay they want we weighed some of them and they were gaining about 2#s per day.
We were feeding it to our young bulls they were only gaining 2.2#s per day so we added a 14% cattle feed to their ration they are now getting 12 #s of wet distillars and 9#s of 14% ration per day plus 2nd cutting clover grass hay mix we have'nt weighed them since switching their ration but they are really growing now.
All of the cattle are being fed Vigortone 3VO-CTC mineral free choice.
One thing that I have learned is there is a Big differance between Distillars grain's wet or dry and Gluten Feed they are not the same thing from what I have been told is the Gluten type feeds have the bigger sulfer worries.The only thing removed from the corn in a distillars plant is the starch for ethanol.But the gluten feed comes from a totally differant process they remove the starch,the oil,fructose among other products.
The wet distillars will test out at 33% protien consistantly where as shell corn is about 10% and if I remember right the gluten feed is about 10% also.The energy content of distillars is higher than corn or gluten also.Plus the extra volume of oil in the distillars is a plus in reproduction.The main thing to remember is distillars grain's and gluten feeds are'nt the same in any way..
In dried distillars that can vary widely from plant to plant depending on the heat put to the product in drying also it can vary quite a bit within the same plant..
We have $8.75 per ton into our wet distillars so that's less than a 1/2 a cent per lb.we have fed our mother cows for less than 75 cents per hd per day all winter that includes hay,mineral,distillars grain,electric and fuel.I am totally sold on feeding the wet distillars but the trick is getting it cheap.We will have fed 35 semi loads by the time grass comes in mid may.Alot of our hay tested in the 2% protein range it was hot and dry here last summer..If we had better hay we could surely cut the amount of wet we feed.
on a load fed on the ground the cattle will waste maybe a 100 #s of fines.
