Economic Favorability of Feeding Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles and Round-Bale Silage to Stocker Cattle1

It is common for stocker operators to buy calves in the spring and sell them as feeder cattle in the fall. Economic favorability of various stocker systems based on animal response is largely untested. A systems grazing study was conducted to compare net returns of 2 different forage management practices with a control. A spring group and a fall group of steers were stocked in each of 3 treatments for 2 yr. All 3 treatments [control, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), and silage] were rotationally stocked with equivalent stocking density and number of paddocks. The control treatment was rotationally stocked only, with no additional feed or forage management. The DDGS treatment was the same as the control treatment except that DDGS was fed to steers based on forage nutritive value. The silage treatment had excess spring-produced forage removed, stored, and fed back to steers as roundbale silage. Both the DDGS and silage treatments had positive returns above the control for both the spring and fall groups. The spring group returned US $0.18 and $0.08 per steer/d above the control group for the silage and DDGS treatments, respectively. The fall silage group returned US $0.28 per steer/d above the control group, whereas the DDGS group returned US $0.49 per steer/d above the control. In each case, and based on a range of costs associated with the silage and DDGS treatments, it is economically beneficial to increase management above rotationally stocking only of stocker cattle from spring to fall.