Effect of replacing barley grain by wheat-based dried distillers’ grains with solubles in the diet on nutritional profiles, energy values, rumen degradation kinetics, and protein supply

Abstract

The objectives of this study were to determine the effect of replacing barley grain portion of the diet by wheat-based dried distillers’ grains with solubles (wDDGS) on feeding value for ruminants. This study revealed that increasing wDDGS inclusion level increased most of nutritional composition linearly, except for starch which linearly decreased. With increasing wDDGS inclusion, the rumen degradation rate of all measured parameters decreased linearly, extent of degradability of organic matter (OM) was not affected. Extent of CP degradability, degraded protein balance in rumen and calculated metabolizable protein supply in small intestine increased linearly with increasing levels of wDDGS. The inclusion of wDDGS in barley based diets up to 50% did not alter energy values of the diet. Furthermore, the optimum N to energy balance of the feed mixture for microbial growth in the rumen was reached by replacing 25% of barley by wDDGS. Thus, the nutritive value of the barley-based diets can be manipulated by including wDDGS in the diet to overcome shortcomings of barley dominated diets for cattle.