By ANN HINCH
Assistant Editor

MUNCIE, Ind. — Two rows of little red and green fall apples lined the length of the each tabletop at last week’s 83rd annual Eastern Indiana Livestock Breeders Assoc. (EILBA) banquet in Muncie. For as long as anybody knows, the apples have been an accompaniment to dinner and awards.

“When I came to my first one in 1963, they were here,” said Ron Orebaugh, now first vice president. “They’ve been here every year since; it just happens, somehow.”

Of course, it’s not like Santa brings the apples now – somebody is designated to do that each year – but nobody seems to remember the apples’ origin. Dr. Leon Thacker, however, remembers well the origins of his veterinary practice in 1965, fresh out of Purdue University and based in Kentucky.

He remembers best the cow he was only able to diagnose as “drunk” – and it turned out she had indeed gotten into the farmer’s best mash.

Livestock these days are eating a different kind of grain byproduct, distillers dried grains (DDG), left over from ethanol production. They are generally hailed as high in concentrated protein and used in some barns as a partial substitute for feed.

Thacker spoke on these at the banquet, since as he pointed out, there are three plants nearby producing DDGs with solubles (DDGS).
Potentially, he said U.S. livestock producers could feed 97 billion pounds of DDGS to their livestock each year – most of this is toward cattle, more than 73 billion pounds, but another 17.6 billion could be fed to swine and 6 billion, to broilers and turkeys.

Thacker consulted with Dr. Brian Richert at Purdue for his presentation, which was aimed at cautioning livestock producers on some drawbacks of feeding DDGS.

It does have nutritional benefits; in cattle, for instance, it can replace high protein diets and may help with low quality fiber diets.
In swine, it has shown to help the animals better resist ileitis and HBS (Hemorrhagic Bowel Syndrome), the causes of which are still unknown.

But one problem with DDGS is nutritional variability, he said. Protein content can vary widely from 58-78 percent, and phosphorous, from 77 to as high as 92 percent. “It’s not consistent,” Thacker said, explaining this is because each plant’s process is different.

DDGS also shows high sulfur content, which may not be good for bovines and may contribute to polioencephalomalacia in dairy cattle if it’s too high.

“Cattle can have big problems with that,” Thacker added.
He is also hesitant to feed more than a 10-15 percent mix of DDGS to dairy cattle because of potential fat overload, and warned because the byproduct is very fine, it could cause stomach ulcer problems. Too high a proportion of DDGS in swine feed can also contribute to softer fat in bacon and sausage that won’t stay in its casing, as he showed in some slide photos. He and Richert recommend a late nursery ration of 5-15 percent with slight increases as the hog ages, and taking it completely off DDGs four weeks before slaughter.

For poultry, Thacker closed his talk by pointing out he would not feed higher than 5-7 percent of DDGs because the birds cannot handle that much fiber. It produces wet, soft feces that he pointed out can create problems in a dry litter waste system.

The EILBA is made up of producers in Blackford, Delaware, Grant, Henry, Jay, Madison, Randolph and Wayne counties.