Effect of crude glycerin concentration on growing steer performance in forage diets

Abstract Text:

Crossbred steers (n = 60, initial BW = 361; SD = 42 kg) were utilized to evaluate increasing concentrations of crude glycerin (GLY) in forage diets on steer performance for a 91 d growing trial. Treatment diets consisted of 0, 4, 8, and 12% GLY (diet DM) in diets containing 50% wheat straw, wet corn bran, soybean meal, and 5% supplement. The GLY replaced wet corn bran in basal diets while soybean meal was increased to maintain equal dietary CP across treatments. Supplements were formulated to provide 200 mg/d monensin and equilibrate Na concentrations across treatment diets. Steers were limit fed for 5 d at the beginning and end of the trial with a 3 d BW collected to serve as initial and ending BW. Steers were implanted with Ralgro on d 1 of the trial. Steer final BW was not different (P = 0.40) among treatments. There was a quadratic increase (P = 0.03) in DM intake from 0% GLY to 8% GLY and subsequent decrease at 12% GLY. There was no difference in ADG or G:F (P ≥0.14) among GLY concentrations. Therefore, GLY appears to have a similar energy value to wet corn bran in a forage diet.

	Glycerin Concentration (Diet DM)					P-value
	0%	4%	8%	12%	SEM	Linear	Quadratic
Initial BW, kg	361	360	360	362	1	0.83	0.23
Final BW, kg	481	476	478	475	4	0.40	0.74
DM intake, kg/d	9.35ab	9.81ab	9.99a	9.26b	0.27	0.93	0.03
ADG, kg/d	1.32	1.27	1.30	1.25	0.05	0.37	0.99
G:F	0.142	0.131	0.131	0.136	0.005	0.50	0.14
ab Means within rows differ P < 0.05.

Keywords: crude glycerin, growing, forage