CODE calculates nutrients in byproduct feeds

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln computer-based model helps cattle feeders and nutritionists better calculate feeding ethanol byproduct feeds to their herds. Cattle CODE -- Coproduct Optimizer Decision Evaluator -- evaluates the economic returns of feeding byproducts compared to a diet with no byproducts, said Galen Erickson, UNL beef feedlot nutrition specialist.

A University of Nebraska-Lincoln computer-based model helps cattle feeders and nutritionists better calculate feeding ethanol byproduct feeds to their herds.

Cattle CODE -- Coproduct Optimizer Decision Evaluator -- evaluates the economic returns of feeding byproducts compared to a diet with no byproducts, said Galen Erickson, UNL beef feedlot nutrition specialist. Cattle CODE is available on the UNL's Beef Cattle Production Web Page at http://beef.unl.edu/byproducts.shtml.

"Cattle CODE not only shows the relative advantage of feeding distillers grains over corn, but also shows overall profitability," the Institute of Agriculture and Natural Resources specialist said.

Cattle CODE was designed by Erickson, animal scientist Terry Klopfenstein, ag economist Darrell Mark, and animal science doctoral students Crystal Buckner and Virgil Bremer.

Type of byproduct, dietary inclusion level, moisture content, trucking costs, feeding costs and price relationship between byproducts and corn price all affect cattle feeding profit or loss when using byproducts, said Mark, UNL livestock marketing specialist.

"Cattle CODE really breaks down some of the complexity with feeding byproducts," Mark said. "When you start adding byproducts to cattle rations, some things improve profitability, but some things can reduce profits compared to a conventional corn-only diet."

Transportation, additional handling or mixing are some of the things that can reduce profits, Mark said.

"And so the bottom line of Cattle CODE is to try to weigh the positive with the negative to see the net gain in profits when adding byproducts to the diet," he said.

Erickson said Cattle CODE was developed so producers can see the bottom line.

"We do a lot of research studies on byproducts and can tell producers what to expect when it comes to cattle performance, but they need to know the bottom line," Erickson said. "That led us to develop this model. Feeding byproducts is quite complex, and there isn't really a blanket response to how profitable they can be."

The economics of feeding byproducts change depending on how much byproducts producers feed, the corn price, distiller's price and distance from an ethanol plant.

"This model allows producers to input their own prices," Erickson said. "If producers can purchase distillers grains at a price below corn, within 60 to 100 miles of a plant, it can be pretty profitable to feed it up to 20 to 40 percent."

Users can input up to six options that allow them to compare six different byproduct options. The six byproduct options include: sweet bran -- gluten feed produced by Cargill, traditional wet corn gluten feed, wet distillers grains plus solubles, modified distillers grains plus solubles, dry distillers grains plus solubles, Dakota Bran Cake -- a fractionated byproduct including corn bran and distillers solubles, and a sweet bran/wet distillers grains plus solubles combination.

Feeding inputs include: in and out weights and prices for cattle; dry matter intake and feed conversion for control diet; diet and byproduct ingredients' dry matter content, price and transportation cost; and processing and medication expense, death loss, yardage and interest rate.

Six output scenarios are computed, one for each byproduct type and/or inclusion level defined by the user. Based on user-specified daily feed intake, feed conversion and the cattle performance equations, Cattle CODE calculates daily gain and projected days on feed.

Days on feed and byproduct inputs may change feed costs, yardage and interest expenses, etc. The user can identify profit-maximizing inclusion levels for each byproduct.

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