1457
Crude Glycerin as a Replacement for Dry Ground Corn in Finishing Diets for Beef Cattle: Economic Analysis
Crude Glycerin as a Replacement for Dry Ground Corn in Finishing Diets for Beef Cattle: Economic Analysis
Monday, July 21, 2014
Exhibit Hall AB (Kansas City Convention Center)
Abstract Text: The objective of this study was to evaluate the effects of replacing dry ground corn (DGC) with crude glycerin (CG) on production costs of finishing beef bulls. A complete randomized design experiment with 25 days for adaptation and 95 days for sampling collection was conducted, in which 3,640 Nellore bulls (367 ± 37 kg) were blocked by BW and assigned to 20 pens. Animals were randomly assigned to one of four treatments: 0, 5, 10, and 15% (DM basis) CG in diet. All diets contained 15% roughage and 85% concentrate and were formulated to meet NRC (2000) recommendations. Diets were isoenergetic, isonitrogenous, and allowed 1.4 kg/d BWG. Initially, twenty animals were slaughtered to serve as reference to estimate initial empty BW, which allowed carcass gain calculation. Sensitivity analysis was performed according to Diniz et al. 2010 (Asian-Aust. J. Anim. Sci. 23:1308-1318) to determine which diet was more economical according to current CG prices as a function of DGC prices. Data presented in the table shows the cost of each diet tested in this work during the period of August to November 2012. Treatment without CG had the lowest diet cost, followed by treatments with 5, 15, and 10% of CG inclusion, respectively. Sensitive analysis indicated that the treatment that provided the lowest cost per kg of carcass produced changes depending on the CG:DGC price relationship. When CG price was up to 110% of DGC price, the treatment that provided the lowest price per kg of carcass produced was 15% CG inclusion. When CG price was 120% or more of DGC price, the diet without CG was the most economical treatment. Data from this sensitive analysis indicates that CG may be an economical alternative to DGC for beef cattle feedlots in Brazil.
Keywords: Economic analysis, Feedlot, Glycerin
Crude Glycerin (%) |
||||
0 |
5 |
10 |
15 |
|
Diet cost, $/kg DM |
0.21 |
0.22 |
0.23 |
0.24 |
DMI, kg/d |
10.5 |
10.1 |
10.2 |
9.6 |
Diet cost, $/animal/d |
2.22 |
2.23 |
2.32 |
2.27 |
Carcass gain, kg/animal/d |
0.89 |
0.85 |
0.84 |
0.83 |
Diet cost, $/kg carcass |
2.49 |
2.62 |
2.76 |
2.72 |
Crude Glycerin price, kg (% of price of DGC kg) |
$/ kg carcass |
|||
90 |
2.49 |
2.51 |
2.54 |
2.41 |
100 |
2.49 |
2.52 |
2.56 |
2.44 |
110 |
2.49 |
2.54 |
2.59 |
2.48 |
120 |
2.49 |
2.55 |
2.62 |
2.52 |
130 |
2.49 |
2.56 |
2.64 |
2.55 |
140 |
2.49 |
2.58 |
2.67 |
2.59 |