Evaluation of Brewers Dried Grains and Yeast in Turkey Diets

Three experiments were conducted to evaluate different levels of brewers dried grains (BDG) and brewers dried grains plus yeast (BDGY) in corn-soy diets for starting and growing-finishing turkeys. BDGY was composed of 95% brewers dried grains and 5% brewers dried yeast. One experiment of 16 weeks duration was conducted with turkey breeder hens. Large White turkeys were used in all experiments. Various levels of BDG or BDGY were included in turkey diets at the expense of soybean meal and ground corn. The level of animal fat was increased in BDG or BDGY diets so that all experimental diets in a given trial were approximately isocaloric and isonitrogenous. A 5% level of BDG was well tolerated in turkey starter diets. Growing-finishing turkeys tolerated BDG and BDGY levels of 5 to 15% very well. However, levels of 15 to 20% or greater did depress feed efficiency. Pelleting BDG diets appeared to greatly improve performance in Experiment 3. However, no direct comparison was made between pelleted and unpelleted diets containing the various levels (5, 10 and 15%) of BDG. All BDG treatments without exception significantly (P<.05) increased body weight at 4, 8, and 12 weeks of age in this experiment. In addition, all BDG treatments except one (5% BDG, 0–20 weeks) were associated with either statistically (P<.05) or numerically greater body weight at 16 and 20 weeks as compared to the control. Turkey breeder hens receiving diets containing 10, 20, and 30% BDG or BDGY performed as well or slightly better than hens fed the control diet. The metabolizable energy (ME) value of 2513 kcal/kg used for BDG in this study was apparently an overestimate. Depressed feed efficiency of birds receiving the higher levels of BDG and BDGY support this conclusion. When levels of 20% or more of BDG replaced corn and soybean meal in diets for growing-finishing turkeys, lysine supplementation was apparently needed.