Effects of dried distillers grains inclusion in supplements on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves on pasture

Effects of dried distillers grains inclusion in supplements on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves on pasture | Research Square window.SnipcartSettings = { analytics: { enabled: false } }; (function() { var accessVector = localStorage.getItem('access_vector') || ''; window.dataLayer = window.dataLayer || []; if (accessVector) { window.dataLayer.push({ user: { profile: { profileInfo: { snid: accessVector } } } }); } })(); (function(w,d,s,l,i){w[l]=w[l]||[];w[l].push({'gtm.start':new Date().getTime(),event:'gtm.js'});var f=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0],j=d.createElement(s),dl=l!='dataLayer'?'&l='+l:'';j.async=true;j.src='https://www.googletagmanager.com/gtm.js?id='+i+dl;f.parentNode.insertBefore(j,f);})(window,document,'script','dataLayer','GTM-K279D39R'); Browse Preprints In Review Journals COVID-19 Preprints AJE Video Bytes Research Tools Research Promotion AJE Professional Editing AJE Rubriq About Preprint Platform In Review Editorial Policies Our Team Advisory Board Help Center Sign In Submit a Preprint Cite Share Download PDF Research Article Effects of dried distillers grains inclusion in supplements on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves on pasture Edinael Rodrigues de Almeida, Johnnatan Castro Cabral Gonçalves, and 11 more This is a preprint; it has not been peer reviewed by a journal. https://doi.org/ 10.21203/rs.3.rs-7723878/v1 This work is licensed under a CC BY 4.0 License Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Abstract The supply of metabolizable nutrients to suckling beef calves on pasture can improve their performance, increasing weaning weight and productivity in cow–calf systems. The objective was to evaluate the effects of dried distillers grains (DDG) inclusion on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves grazing tropical pastures. Forty-eight Nellore calves, 120 ± 35 days of age and 135 ± 23.4 kg of body weight (BW), were used. Calves received one of the following treatments under a creep-feeding strategy: mineral mixture only, provided ad libitum (CONTROL); or concentrate supplementation (SUP, 6 g/kg BW, containing 225 g/kg crude protein) with 0% (SUP0), 48.4% (SUP48), or 96.8% (SUP96) DDG inclusion. Concentrate supplementation increased intake of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), non-fibrous carbohydrates (NFC), total digestible nutrients (TDN), and the CP/digestible organic matter ratio (P < 0.10). Digestibility of DM, CP, and NFC decreased linearly with increasing DDG inclusion. Serum glucose, insulin-like growth factor 1, and blood urea nitrogen concentrations were greater in calves receiving concentrate supplementation (P < 0.10). Concentrate supplementation increased average daily gain, weaning BW, and ribeye area (P 0.10). DDG can be included in supplements for suckling beef calves grazing tropical pastures, with potential to replace traditional feedstuffs such as corn and soybean meal, without negatively affecting weight gain. animal development metabolizable protein tropical pastures cow-calf beef systems creep-feeding Full Text Cite Share Download PDF Status: Posted Version 1 posted You are reading this latest preprint version Research Square lets you share your work early, gain feedback from the community, and start making changes to your manuscript prior to peer review in a journal. As a division of Research Square Company, we’re committed to making research communication faster, fairer, and more useful. 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Also discoverable on Platform About Our Team In Review Editorial Policies Advisory Board Help Center Resources Author Services Accessibility API Access RSS feed Manage Cookie Preferences © Research Square 2026 | ISSN 2693-5015 (online) Privacy Policy Terms of Service Do Not Sell My Personal Information {"props":{"pageProps":{"initialData":{"identity":"rs-7723878","acceptedTermsAndConditions":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"archivedVersions":[],"articleType":"Research Article","associatedPublications":[],"authors":[{"id":556301655,"identity":"80a3c487-7d28-49b8-850e-d6e5ca878617","order_by":0,"name":"Edinael Rodrigues de 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creep-feeding","lastPublishedDoi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7723878/v1","lastPublishedDoiUrl":"https://doi.org/10.21203/rs.3.rs-7723878/v1","license":{"name":"CC BY 4.0","url":"https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/"},"manuscriptAbstract":"\u003cp\u003eThe supply of metabolizable nutrients to suckling beef calves on pasture can improve their performance, increasing weaning weight and productivity in cow\u0026ndash;calf systems. The objective was to evaluate the effects of dried distillers grains (DDG) inclusion on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves grazing tropical pastures. Forty-eight Nellore calves, 120\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;35 days of age and 135\u0026thinsp;\u0026plusmn;\u0026thinsp;23.4 kg of body weight (BW), were used. Calves received one of the following treatments under a creep-feeding strategy: mineral mixture only, provided ad libitum (CONTROL); or concentrate supplementation (SUP, 6 g/kg BW, containing 225 g/kg crude protein) with 0% (SUP0), 48.4% (SUP48), or 96.8% (SUP96) DDG inclusion. Concentrate supplementation increased intake of dry matter (DM), crude protein (CP), non-fibrous carbohydrates (NFC), total digestible nutrients (TDN), and the CP/digestible organic matter ratio (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.10). Digestibility of DM, CP, and NFC decreased linearly with increasing DDG inclusion. Serum glucose, insulin-like growth factor 1, and blood urea nitrogen concentrations were greater in calves receiving concentrate supplementation (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.10). Concentrate supplementation increased average daily gain, weaning BW, and ribeye area (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026lt;\u0026thinsp;0.10), with no differences related to DDG inclusion (P\u0026thinsp;\u0026gt;\u0026thinsp;0.10). DDG can be included in supplements for suckling beef calves grazing tropical pastures, with potential to replace traditional feedstuffs such as corn and soybean meal, without negatively affecting weight gain.\u003c/p\u003e","manuscriptTitle":"Effects of dried distillers grains inclusion in supplements on intake, digestibility, metabolism, and performance of suckling beef calves on pasture","msid":"","msnumber":"","nonDraftVersions":[{"code":1,"date":"2025-12-12 09:31:34","doi":"10.21203/rs.3.rs-7723878/v1","editorialEvents":[{"type":"communityComments","content":0}],"status":"published","journal":{"display":true,"email":"[email protected]","identity":"researchsquare","isNatureJournal":false,"hasQc":true,"allowDirectSubmit":true,"externalIdentity":"","sideBox":"","snPcode":"","submissionUrl":"/submission","title":"Research Square","twitterHandle":"researchsquare","acdcEnabled":true,"dfaEnabled":false,"editorialSystem":"","reportingPortfolio":"","inReviewEnabled":false,"inReviewRevisionsEnabled":true}}],"origin":"","ownerIdentity":"a293bb79-7de0-43b2-a4cf-c973214c5a9b","owner":[],"postedDate":"December 12th, 2025","published":true,"recentEditorialEvents":[],"rejectedJournal":[],"revision":"","amendment":"","status":"posted","subjectAreas":[],"tags":[],"updatedAt":"2025-12-13T10:36:52+00:00","versionOfRecord":[],"versionCreatedAt":"2025-12-12 09:31:34","video":"","vorDoi":"","vorDoiUrl":"","workflowStages":[]},"version":"v1","identity":"rs-7723878","journalConfig":"researchsquare"},"__N_SSP":true},"page":"/article/[identity]/[[...version]]","query":{"redirect":"/article/rs-7723878","identity":"rs-7723878","version":["v1"]},"buildId":"8U1c8b4HqxoKbykW_rLl7","isFallback":false,"isExperimentalCompile":false,"dynamicIds":[84888],"gssp":true,"scriptLoader":[]}