Elevated concentrations of crude glycerin in diets for beef cattle: feedlot performance, carcass traits and ruminal metabolism

Eric H C B Van Cleef, Solange Uwituze, Christian A Alvarado-Gilis, Kevin A Miller, Cadra L Van Bibber-Krueger, Celine C Aperce, James S Drouillard

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate the inclusion of crude glycerin (CG) in diets for beef cattle. In Experiment 1, four ruminally-cannulated steers were fed diets with 0 or 15% CG (dry matter [DM] basis), to evaluate DM disappearance, volatile fatty acids (VFA) profiles, and gas production. There was a tendency for an interaction (P = 0.06) between diet fed to donor animals and substrate fed to in vitro system, and digestion was increased when CG was added to cultures with ruminal fluid from CG-fed animals. Total VFA were unaffected by diets or by substrate incubated. The CG increased production of propionate, butyrate and valerate (P < 0.01) while the gas production was unaffected (P = 0.16). In experiment 2, twenty-four crossbred heifers (334.4 ± 0.9 kg body weight) were fed the same diets as Experiment 1, for 35 d. Fecal grab samples were collected three times daily on d 7, 21, and 35, to evaluate total tract digestibilities of DM, organic matter (OM) and neutral detergent fiber (NDF). The CG improved digestibility of diet OM (P = 0.04), and DM followed a similar trend (P = 0.06), while the NDF digestibility was unaffected (P = 0.29). In Experiment 3, crossbred heifers (n = 374; 375.8 ± 36.1kg body weight) were used to evaluate feedlot performance and carcass traits when fed diets with 0, 7.5, or 15% CG, with or without added 0.3% salt. Heifers were assigned to 25 pens and were harvested on d 125. Removing salt from CG-based diets did not impact performance (P = 0.50). The CG did not influence average daily gain (P = 0.27), but decreased DM intake (P = 0.003), USDA Yield Grade (P = 0.01) and improved feed efficiency (P = 0.03), while tended to decrease USDA prime carcasses (P = 0.10). Carcass weight (P = 0.24), Longissimus muscle area (P = 0.63), and kidney, pelvic, heart fat (P = 0.59) were unaffected by CG. Twelfth-rib fat was less for heifers fed 15% CG without salt compared with the other treatments (P = 0.005), while marbling was less for heifers fed CG diets compared with the control-fed animals (linear, P = 0.004; quadratic, P = 0.02). In conclusion, GC can replace dry-rolled corn in diets for beef heifers when fed at 15% of diet DM, improving OM digestion, increasing ruminal propionate and butyrate without affecting greenhouse gas emissions. Feeding up to 15% CG improves feed efficiency but depresses marbling and tends to decrease Quality Grade. Removing supplemental salt from CG-diets has no impact on performance or carcass traits.