At BASF Plant Science, we tend to focus our ration discussions around corn silage, which in our opinion should comprise the majority of the total mixed ration (TMR). However, we should spend some time discussing the co-products that can be used to make up the rest of the TMR. Industrially produced co-products, such as corn distillers grains, corn gluten feed, corn gluten meal and soybean hulls, are very important for a dairy cow’s diet.
Here are some of the most commonly used co-products:
- Distillers grains are popular because they can replace both corn and soybean meal (the standard protein we have in our dairy rations) to a certain percentage. We’ve proven over and over again that corn distiller products are a viable replacement for corn, up to 20-25% of the ration dry matter intake. It won’t fully replace it because of the energy. We know that corn fiber is a very effective energy source and a very safe and effective fiber source. It allows us to displace corn, and sometimes even other forages, and lets us maximize other corn forages such as corn silage as well as then allowing us to bring the inclusion of soybean meal down.
- Corn gluten feed can be used on a dry matter basis in 15-20% of the total ration. Corn gluten meal is the protein fraction of the corn that is over 60% protein, and we know it’s a very good source of bypass protein.
- Soybean hulls are another very important co-product. Soybean hulls are the remaining 8-10% that is left once you pop off the meats (soybean meal). As we know from work we did at Missouri years ago that’s been duplicated several times, you can easily go to 25-30% of the DMI with soybean hulls.
Some producers may view co-products as an added financial expense, but if used correctly, they can actually help save producers money. We urge producers to work with their nutritionists, extension agents or veterinarians to do linear programming to determine how they can displace corn, soy or other potential forage sources like alfalfa in the ration and ultimately bring down costs without any negative effects on feed efficiency. Additionally, we have seen some early work on young growing animals indicating that co-products may improve feed efficiency because it’s allowing the animals to be more efficient at converting this carbohydrate source over to energy. If you are buying wet co-products be sure you know the moisture content of the product and understand that their “shelf life” is shorter than dry products.
One question when determining the use of co-products is, how high can we go with corn silage in the ration? At BASF Plant Science, we have looked at that question quite a bit in our research. In our recent study with Cornell University, we included 5.5% of the ration dry matter soybean hulls with excellent results. If one is looking at corn gluten feed, corn distillers products or soybean hulls, NutriDense fits very well into those programs and allows producers to further drop the amount of corn grain in TMRs. Additionally, we know the effective fiber of NutriDense will give us that safety margin or the rumen ecological advantage that fits very well with corn or soybean co-products.
There are certainly a lot of negatives on co-products out there, but they’re usually driven by a lack of information. Producers who use co-products need to work with their suppliers to make certain they know the correct nutritional specifications, which in turn will allow for proper balancing. If fed and managed properly, co-products will be very profitable to a producer’s operation.
Jerry Weigel is the manager of nutrition and technical services for BASF Plant Science. You can contact him at gerald.weigel@basf.com.
