Nutrition
Evaluation of cotton ginning by-product value added feed as a supplement for grazing beef cattle
J.D. Rivera, L.W. Fitzgerald, M. Gipson, K. Odom, R. Gipson, and H.B. Jones
A cotton ginning by-product (CPM) was evaluated as a supplemental feedstuff for cattle (n=52) grazing dormant summer pastures during a 70 d period in 2010. Bales of CPM are a mixture of cotton gin, cotton mote, added protein, molasses and a complete mineral package, and are designed to be a self fed complete feed for pasture cattle. In this study, CPM was compared to a limit fed diet (DIET) of soybean hull pellets, dried distiller's grains with soluble and a mineral package in a randomized complete design using pasture as the experimental unit. There were four pastures per treatment and each pasture was approximately 3.34 ha in area and consisted of a dormant summer grasses (mix of bahiagrass, bermudagrass, and crabgrass) and were stocked with either 6 or 7 head of crossbred English cattle. All pastures were clipped to a uniform height prior to initiation of the study to equate forage mass. Treatments were CPM fed ad libitum and SBH/DDGS limit fed at the rate of 1.5% of BW and was formulated to be similar in nutrient profile to the CPM bale. Cattle were stratified by BW and randomly assigned to pasture. Cattle fed CPM had greater feed intake compared to cattle limit fed SBH/DDGS (6.49 kg vs. 4.69, respectively, P <0.10). Nonetheless, cattle fed DIET had greater ADG (P<0.05) compared to cattle fed CPM (0.76 kg vs 0.60 kg, respectively). Additionally, cattle fed DIET had more efficient supplement only feed conversion (P<0.05). Nontheless, due to by product nature of CPM (primarily gin-trash) it was more inexpensive and thereby resulted in a similar cost of gain (P>0.10) compared to DIET. Results of the study indicate that limit feeding a mixed ration resulted in greater daily gain and efficiency, however, did not result in greater cost of gain.