2014 North Dakota Beef Research Report

The 2014 North Dakota Beef Research Report is hot off the presses.  The beef research programs at the NDSU main campus in Fargo and the Research Extension Centers across North Dakota are dedicated to serving the producers and stakeholders in North Dakota by developing knowledge and technology to improve the management, efficiency and production of high-quality cattle and beef using sustainable and safe approaches. This report includes a broad range of research from on-campus departments, schools and centers, as well as Research Extension Centers across the state, and provides producers and stakeholders with one document that contains all beef related research conducted at NDSU each year.  Hard Copies are available at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center or click the following link to access this most recent as well as past Beef Research Reports. 

http://www.ag.ndsu.edu/cattledocs/research-reports

2014 North Dakota Angus University Feed-Out Project

The 2014 North Dakota Angus University (NDAU) Feed-Out project came to a close, with the last group of calves marketing last week.  This year 164 head of Angus steers, consigned by North Dakota producers, participated in the third annual feed-out program at the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center.  The Angus University cattle were enrolled in a feeding trial evaluating three corn tempering dietary treatments compared to the control diet of dry-rolled corn.  Tempered corn is corn that is re-hydrated to be around 20% moisture (80% dry matter), prior to rolling through a roller mill.  The three corn tempering treatments were corn tempered with water; corn tempered with water and a surfactant, or corn tempered with water and condensed distiller’s solubles.   The tempering process is often used with barley in barley-based finishing diets.  The objective was to evaluate if the tempering process could be used in corn based diets to improve animal performance, carcass characteristics, and overall feeding efficiency.

Cattle started the trial in June 2014 weighing an average of 896 lbs. After approximately 114 days on feed the steers were marketed at an average finish weight of 1387 lbs.  The overall average daily gain for the group was 4.45 lbs. per day.  Looking at the preliminary animal performance data (table 1) the three tempered corn treatments had numerically greater average daily gains compared to the dry rolled corn treatment diet (4.5 lbs./day vs 4.3 lbs./day).  Over the next few months we will further analyze the full data set to determine if tempered corn is a viable feedlot management practice.  More details of the trial will be presented at the North Dakota Angus Association annual meeting in November and published in the 2015 North Dakota Beef Research Report.

Table 1. 2014 NDAU Corn Tempering Research Project Preliminary Steer Performance data.

We would like to express our thanks to the producers who consigned cattle and to the North Dakota Angus Association for partnering with the NDSU Carrington Research Extension Center for the third annual NDAU. Also, thank you to the North Dakota Corn Utilization Council for supporting this corn tempering research.

Chanda Engel
Livestock Research Specialist