PSVI-23 - Economic potential of field peas as an alternative to corn distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS) in beef heifer growing diets

Abstract: Field pea production in North Dakota has increased significantly over the past 20 years with hectares planted increasing by more than 68% over that period. With the increase in supply of field peas, there is interest in evaluating whether using field peas in beef cattle finishing rations is economical compared to commonly ingredients such as corn DDGS. This two-year study was conducted to a) determine the economic potential of field peas relative to corn DDGS in growing heifer diets and, b) identify price points for competitive utilization of field peas as an alternative to corn DDGS in growing heifer diets. Each year, 162 heifers were kept in six dry lot pens and fed isocaloric and isonitrogenous corn DDGS-based or field pea-based total mixed rations in the fall and winter. Heifer performance data analysis considered the fixed effects of diet (corn DDGS or field peas), season (fall and winter), and diet x season interaction. Economic evaluation of feed costs for each TMR was based on the two-year average measures of DMI and total gain. Sensitivity analysis was conducted to calculate relative total cost of feeding field peas versus corn DDGS for a number of combinations of prices of corn DDGS and field peas. Heifer final BW, total gain, and daily gains were not impacted (P > 0.05) by diet when 0.33 kg d-1 and 0.48 kg d-1 of corn DDGS and field peas were incorporated into corn DDGS-based and field peas-based TMR, respectively. Seasonal differences in heifer performance showed greater (P < 0.001) DMI in winter relative to fall and greater (P < 0.001) total gain and ADG in the fall relative to winter. The relative value of field peas was mainly driven by amount of field peas incorporated into diets and price of field peas relative to corn DDGS. Overall, for a base-case average price of $325 MT-1 for corn DDGS, the breakeven price for field peas was equal to $231.15 MT-1, which was 36.8% less than the base-case price of $366 MT-1 for field peas, and 71% of the base-case price of corn DDGS. Conversely, for the base-case price of field peas of $366, the breakeven price of corn DDGS was equal to $514.60 MT-1, which was 58.3% more than the base-case price of $325 MT for corn DDGS and 140.6% more than the base-case price for field peas. Results show that there are economic benefits of including field peas in cattle rations when there is excess field peas production available at competitive prices and offer useful economic information to the field pea processing industry about the range of prices that beef cattle producers can afford to pay for field peas relative to corn DDGS.