Include distillers in your nutrient-management plan

Before you ramp up the level of distillers grains in a ration, consider the ramifications on your nutrient-management plan, says Roger Epley, independent nutritionist in Neenah, Wis. For example, a 3,000-cow dairy that feeds 30 pounds of wet distillers per cow per day (as-fed) generates more nutrients than the same size dairy not feeding distillers. That equates to the following difference in nutrient levels per year:

• One truckload of sulfur.
• One truckload of phosphorus.
• Two truckloads of nitrogen.

This can be a concern if you don’t have adequate land base for this volume of nutrients, Epley says. It could mean the difference between feeding it or not feeding it at all.

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