Intake and digestibility of wheat midds as pellets or meal at two
levels in finishing diets for yearling steers

V. L. Anderson Carrington Research Extension Center
North Dakota State University

Introduction
Wheat midds is a co-product of milling hard wheat for flour or durum for pasta manufacturing. The significant distance of the North Dakota mills from mainstream markets places wheat midds at a trading disadvantage as the price is often $20 per ton less than Kansas City quotes. Alternative uses need to be explored to add value to this product. Feeding wheat midds to beef cattle is a logical use. The high fiber, moderate protein commodity can be utilized by ruminants. Supplements for wintering beef cows and feed for feedlot cattle are the major potential markets for wheat midds. Wheat midds main use has been in premixes, creep feeds, and range cubes, where it serves as a carrier for ionophores, non-protein nitrogen, or mineral supplements in pelleted or cake form. Little data is available on the use of wheat midds in backgrounding and finishing diets at more than nominal levels or in meal or pellet form.

Experimental Procedure
To provide preliminary information on intake and digestibilityof wheat midds in finishing diets for yearling steers, a 2x2 factorial experiment was conducted using pelleted or non-pelleted wheat midds fed at 20 or 50% of the grain component in the diet. In the 4x4 Latin Square designed study, steers in each pen were exposed to each feed treatment. Four steers were randomly alloted to each pen at the start of the trial.
Steers were fed each experimental ration for 9 days prior to a 5 day data collection period. Intake was measured daily and fecal samples collected for digestibility comparisons. A known quantity of each feed ingredient was offered once daily and orts (portion not eaten by the time of the next feeding) removed, weighed, and discarded prior to subsequent feeding. Intake was calculated as average intake per head per day and as a percent of body weight. The corn based diets included 3 pounds of alfalfa hay, 1.56 pounds of protein/ionophore/mineral supplement and the appropriate mixture of corn and wheat midds to appetite.
Fecal samples were collected from each steer daily and composited by ration treatment (pen) for each of the four collection periods. Acid insoluble ash was used as an indigestible internal marker to determine digestibility by comparing concentration in the feed vs concentration in the feces.
Two additional pens of four head each were used to compare the four diets with and without a liquid feed supplement. The liquid feed supplement was added to the diet as it was mixed and bunk fed once daily. A commercial liquid feed product which contains 19% fat in addition to molasses, whey and condensed distillers solubles was used. The same collection schedule was used. The potential advantages of adding a liquid supplement are reduction of fines, increased palatability, and added energy from the fat and molasses. The return over cost will need to be determined in a commercial scale feedlot study.
Statistical analysis was conducted according to SAS (1987) GLM procedures with pen as the experimental unit. Analysis was conducted for main effects of treatment and period and interactions.

Results and Discussion

Intake in pounds per head per day, and as a percent of body weight, and digestibility are reported in tables 1-3 for amount of midds in the diet (20 vs 50%), physical form, (pellets vs meal) and supplement (liquid or no liquid). No interactions were observed so data was pooled for evaluation of main effects. No differences were detected for any of the variables in the traits measured. Digestibilities are higher than typically reported which may be a function of the using acid insoluble ash as a marker.
Pelleted wheat midds at 0, 10, 20 and 30% of cracked corn based finishing diets in a replicated 120 day trial with 820 pound steers caused a linear decrease (P<.05) in gains and feed efficiency with increasing wheat midds in the diet (Brandt et al., 1986). The 50% level in this study has not been evaluated in a commercial feedlot setting. As grain prices remain high, higher levels of wheat midds may provide adaquate gains for profitable feeding. While this trial gives us an idication that there is little apparent difference in the intake and digestibility of midds due to form or amount, additonal studies are warranted to determine animal perfomance and cost of gain using more animals and treatments.

Literature Cited
Brandt, R. T., R. W. Lee, and J. Carrica. 1986. Replacing corn with pelleted wheat midds in finishing diets. Cattle Feeders' Day, Garden City Branch Station, Kansas State University, p21

NRC. 1984. Nutritional requirements of beef cattle. National Acadamy of Sciences, Washington, D. C.

SAS User's Guide. 1987. SAS Institute, Crary, NC

Table 1. Intake of finishing diets with wheat midds at 20 or 50% of the concentrate. 
                        -----Treatment------
                        20% Midds  50% Midds      SE     P value	
----------------------------------------------------------------
Intake/hd/day, lb        30.88      29.71        .83       .39

Intake as % of body wt.   2.78       2.89        .09       .31

Digestibility, %         86.98      90.59       1.83       .11

Table 2. Intake of finishing diets with pelleted vs meal form wheat midds. 
                       -----Treatment----
                       Pellets       Meal         SE     P value	
----------------------------------------------------------------

Intake/hd/day, lb       30.30       30.28        .91       .99

Intake as % of body wt.  2.83        2.83        .10       .98

Digestibility, %        87.72       89.84       1.86       .25a

Table 3. Intake of finishing diets with wheat midds fed with or without a liquid supplement 
                         ---Treatment----
                         Dry       Liquid       SE       P value
----------------------------------------------------------------

Intake/hd.day, lb       31.58       32.42       1.53       .54

Intake as % of body wt.  2.92        3.08	 .17       .18

Digestibility           91.87       89.64       2.11       .40


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