Effect of Adding Urea to Finishing Diets Containing Two Different Inclusions of Distillers Grains on Steer Performance and Carcass Characteristics

The effects of adding urea to a dry rolled corn based finishing diet containing low inclusions of distillers grains was evaluated. Treatments were designed as a 2 × 4 factorial arrangement with factors consisting of wet distillers inclusion (either 12 or 20% of diet DM) and urea inclusion (0, 0.4, 0.8, 1.2% of diet DM). There were no significant interactions observed between distillers inclusion and urea inclusion in the diet. Increasing inclusion of distillers grains improved carcass adjusted average daily gain and feed conversion and reduced dry matter intake. Increasing distillers inclusion also increased 12th rib fat and had a tendency to increase hot carcass weight. There were no significant linear or quadratic responses for increasing urea inclusion in the diet. These data suggest that when feeding at least 12% distillers in the diet, supplemental urea has minimal impact on animal performance