Feeding Nucleotides with Corn Germ Meal or Dried Corn Distillers Grains Does Not Promote Growth Performance of Receiving and Growing Calves

Corn germ meal is often used in swine and poultry diets, but very little information exists on the effects on beef cattle and on newly arrived stressed cattle. When formulating receiving and growing diets, calf health and stress are important factors to consider. Including nucleotides, an immune-boosting feed additive may aid in gastrointestinal health of an animal and furthermore improve growth performance. The objective of these experiments was to determine: 1) the effects of corn germ meal in comparison to dried corn distillers grains on growth performance and 2) the effects of nucleotides on growth performance, by receiving and growing cattle.


Introduction
Corn germ meal is often used in swine and poultry diets, but very little information exists on the effects on beef cattle and on newly arrived stressed cattle.When formulating receiving and growing diets, calf health and stress are important factors to consider.Including nucleotides, an immune-boosting feed additive may aid in gastrointestinal health of an animal and furthermore improve growth performance.The objective of these experiments was to determine: 1) the effects of corn germ meal in comparison to dried corn distillers grains on growth performance and 2) the effects of nucleotides on growth performance, by receiving and growing cattle.
Key words: receiving and growing diet, nucleotide, corn germ meal

Experimental Procedures
Crossbred heifers (n = 213, initial body weight = 576 lb) were shipped from three separate sources (Searcy, AR; Snook, TX; and Melbourne, AR) to the Beef Stocker Unit in Manhattan, KS, to determine the feeding value of corn germ meal in comparison with dried corn distillers grains and to evaluate the effects of nucleotides on receiving stocker cattle health and performance (Experiment 1).The heifers were blocked by source, stratified by arrival weight within each block and assembled into 11 or 12 head per pen.Pens were randomly assigned one of six treatments: 1) corn germ meal with 0 g/heifer daily nucleotides (corn germ meal 0); 2) corn germ meal with 2 g/heifer daily nucleotides (corn germ meal 2); 3) corn germ meal with 4 g/heifer daily nucleotides (corn germ meal 4); 4) dried corn distillers grains with 0 g/heifer daily nucleotides (dried corn distillers grains 0); 5) dried corn distillers grains with 2 g/heifer daily nucleotides (dried corn distillers grains 2); and 6) dried corn distillers grains with 4 g/heifer daily nucleotides (dried corn distillers grains 4) (Table 1).Heifers were fed once daily and feed samples of each diet were collected weekly from each bunk and stored for later analysis.Heifers were individually weighed on day 0, 28, 56, 84, and 85.A second experiment was conducted to follow up on the effects of nucleotides on receiving stocker cattle health and performance (Experiment 2).Brahman × Hereford crossbred heifers (n = 240, initial body weight = 590 lb) were blocked by weight, stratified by weight within each block, and randomly assigned to one of three treatments from the previous experiment; dried corn distillers grains 0, dried corn distillers grains 2, and dried corn distillers grains 4. Calves were fed once daily.Feed samples of each diet were collected weekly from each bunk and stored for later analysis.Heifers were individually weighed on days 0, 28, 56, and 57 (completion of trial).

Results and Discussion
In Experiment 1, inclusion of corn germ meal at 24.5% on a dry matter basis was similar to dried corn distillers grain diets containing 22.0% dried corn distillers grains for dry matter intake (P≥0.19),average daily gain (P≥0.57), and gain:feed (P≥0.34)(Table 2).There were no linear (P≥0.15) or quadratic (P≥0.28)effects of nucleotides on the growth performance of growing and receiving beef heifers.Likewise, in Experiment 2, there was no difference (linear or quadratic) in dry matter intake (all P≥0.43), average daily gain (P≥0.18), or gain:feed (P≥0.26) by nucleotide inclusion level over the 56 day feeding period (Table 3).

Implications
These experiments indicate that corn germ meal yielded similar growth performance to dried corn distillers grains.There was no effect of nucleotides on the growth performance of receiving and growing calves in these experiments.

Table 1 .
Composition of diets (% of dry matter) containing corn germ meal, dried distillers grains and a nucleotide additive fed during Experiments 1 and 2

Table 2 .
Effects of corn germ meal and dried corn distillers grains and the addition of a nucleotide additive on beef heifer gain, intake and efficiency (Experiment 1)

Table 3 .
Effects of the addition of a nucleotide additive to diets containing dried distillers grains on beef heifer gain, intake, and efficiency 1PSB Complex, DSS Global, Chicago, IL.