Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, University of Arkansas Division of Agriculture
Dale Bumpers College of Agricultural, Food and Life Sciences

A newsletter for faculty, staff and students

September-October 2005 • Vol. 31, No. 5

Gifts will help construct facility for livestock feed research

Growing demand for feed grains, increasingly sought for alternative fuel production, is driving beef producers to feed increasing amounts of grain byproducts to their cattle, said Dr. Stacey Gunter, an animal scientist based at the Southwest Research and Extension Center at Hope.

Area Farm Bureau representatives present a gift for the construction of a research commodity storage barn to Dr. Mike Phillips, resident director of the Southwest Research and Experiment Station at Hope. From left are Warren Plyler, former Agency Manager for Hempstead County Farm Bureau; Steve Lance, Vice President of Hempstead County Farm Bureau; Larry Garlington, agency manager; Ned Ray Purtle, Farm Bureau Board member; Phillips; and Mark Lloyd, President of Hempstead County Farm Bureau.

“The general consensus in the industry is that biofuels will compete with cattle for feed grains,” Gunter said. “But biofuel production produces grain byproducts that can be used for feed.”

Gunter said many beef producers have been switching to grain byproducts in recent years, largely because of rising feed costs. Feed grains cost as much as $120 per ton, whereas byproducts cost $50 to $100 per ton.

“We know how cattle perform on corn and other grains,” he said. “But we don’t have any controlled studies of how they perform on many of the grain byproducts.”

In response to the expressed needs of beef producers, and with their support, the Division of Agriculture plans to build a research commodity storage barn at SWREC that can accommodate research programs for feed from grain-processing byproducts, said Dr. Mike Phillips, center director.

“Our intent is to build a storage barn that can be duplicated by area producers,” Phillips said.

Ned Ray Purtle of Hope, a rancher, chairman of Automated Solutions, Inc., of Knoxville, Ark., and a former member of the U of A Board of Trustees, is giving a matching grant of $20,000 for the research commodity storage barn, said Chuck Culver, director of development for the Division of Agriculture. The Hempstead County Farm Bureau has given $5,000 and the Nevada County Farm Bureau has given $500.

Gunter said grain byproduct research will concentrate on animal nutrition and water quality issues.

“Feed grains typically contain 6 or 7 percent crude protein,” he said. “Feeds made from byproducts may contain around 25 percent crude protein. We want to know what that higher concentration means for animal nutrition. How much are the cattle consuming and what impact is it having on animal growth and performance?”

“Differing types and classes of livestock will respond differently to these byproducts and interact with unique forages grown in the South, so feeding research will have to be conducted on suckling calves, weaned calves and brood cows,” Gunter said.

He said processing of feed grains concentrates nitrogen and phosphorus in the byproducts that will most likely end up in manure. These two elements introduce major environmental concerns.

“In the past, these byproducts were fed to cattle without regard to the composition,” Gunter said. “With changes in environmental regulation, nutritionists and farmers are becoming concerned about the nutrient excretion of cattle.

“We want to know what adjustments may be needed in nutrient management to protect water quality,” Gunter said. “Excess nutrients aren’t a problem, yet, in most of southwestern Arkansas, but it’s coming and the producers know it.”

Gunter said the research commodity storage barn that area producers are funding with their gifts will provide needed infrastructure to support this research.

“Having quality facilities will help make the Division nationally competitive for grants to fund research that will benefit all our stakeholders,” he said.