Influence of Dried Distillers Grains Supplementation Frequency on Forage Digestibility and Growth Performance

Two experiments evaluated the influence of dried distillers grains supplementation frequency on forage digestibility and growth of yearling steers. In Exp. 1, treatments were dried distillers grains fed at 16.7% of the diet either daily, every other day or every third day. Diet DM, OM and NDF digestibility decreased linearly as dried distillers grains supplementation occurred less frequently. In Exp. 2, 48 crossbred steers were used in a two-year study to compare corn/soybean meal with dried distillers grains as winter supplements. Steers performed similarly when supplements were fed 6 days/week but performance was decreased when dried distillers grains was fed 3 days/ week. Better animal performance may result from more frequent supplementation of dried distillers grains.