Influence of stocking rate and advancing season on forage intake, digestibility, and ruminal fermentation in steers supplemented with dried distillers grains with solubles while grazing northern Great Plains rangelands

The objectives of this study were to evaluate the effects of stocking rate and advancing season on diet chemical composition, intake, digestibility, and ruminal fermentation in steers supplemented with distillers grains with solubles [0.3% of body weight (BW)] while grazing northern Great Plains rangelands. Angus cross beef steers (n = 188; 320 ± 30.3 kg initial BW) were used to establish targeted stocking rates, and 12 ruminal cannulated steers (272 ± 20.0 kg initial BW) were used for diet sampling while cograzing with the noncannulated animals on 12 pastures (n = 3 per treatment). Stocking rates were set to target 65%, 50%, 35%, and 20% of an average annual above-ground biomass remaining at the end of the grazing season (May–September). Five 10-d collection periods were conducted for May 13–22, June 10–19, July 8–17, August 5–14, and September 2–11. There was no difference in steer BWs or average daily gain during any of the collection periods or between stocking rate (P ≥ 0.10). Organic matter (OM), neutral detergent fiber, and acid detergent fiber of forage masticate samples were not affected (P ≥ 0.25) by stocking rate. Crude protein, and all N fractions of forage masticates also did not differ between stocking rate treatments (P ≥ 0.18). Forage OM intake (grams per kilogram of BW) increased cubically across the entire grazing season (P = 0.05). Organic matter digestibility decreased quadratically (P < 0.01) from May to September. Neutral detergent fiber digestibility showed a cubic effect (P < 0.01) across the grazing season, increasing from May to June, then decreasing till September. Crude protein digestibility decreased linearly (P < 0.01) as the season advanced. Ruminal ammonia and volatile fatty acid (VFA) concentrations were affected by stocking rate × period interactions (P ≤ 0.02). Ruminal pH, ammonia, and VFA concentrations were not affected by the stocking rate (P > 0.13) but were impacted by the advancing season (P < 0.01). Ruminal pH increased quadratically (P ≤ 0.01) with advancing season (6.3 to 6.6 ± 0.05 from May to September, respectively). The results of this study demonstrate that intake, fermentation, and digestibility of northern Great Plains forages were influenced more by seasonal factors associated with forage maturity than stocking rate under the conditions of this study.