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Table 2. Ration for cattle fed sulfur-mitigating inorganic salt.
Ingredient Percent, DM basis Percent, As Fed
Corn # 2 62.00 50.83
Dist grains, wet 20.00 34.84
Straw 10.00 8.20
Canola meal 5.00 3.87
Supplement 2.00 1.55
Calcium carbonate 1.00 0.71
Total, Percent 100 100
Nutrient content
Dry Matter, %
NEg, Mcal/lb
Crude Protein, %
Calcium, %
Phosphorous, %
Potassium, %
Sulfur, %
69.68
62.71
13.61
0.64
0.35
0.59
0.36
All calves were weighed individually at the start of the trial on March 14, 2009, and when the trial was
completed and the cattle went to market on May 4. Dry-matter intake, gain, and feed efficiency were
calculated for each animal and averaged for each pen and for each treatment. Cattle were marketed
as a group.
Results
The base diet fed in this study was 0.36% sulfur, with distillers grains as the primary source of sulfur.
The primary question of the study was to determine if the inorganic salt product had any negative effect
on feed intake or animal performance. There were insufficient replications to conduct confident
statistical comparisons so the raw data is reported on a pen and sex-of-calf basis. The results of this
field study (Table 3) suggest that feed intake was not affected. While this cannot be deduced from the
limited replications, numerical values suggest some potential for positive effects on intake and gain
from the addition of the inorganic salt. No health issues or illnesses were observed for the calves
during the 50-day feeding period.
Page 9 2009 NDSU Beef Feedlot Research Report