Dakota Gold is a low-oil source of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) produced using a cold-fermentation process. Recent research conducted by the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Laboratory has demonstrated that the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of amino acids is greater in Dakota Gold than in conventional DDGS, but Dakota Gold contains less metabolizable energy (ME) than conventional DDGS.

An experiment was conducted to determine effects on growth performance and carcass characteristics of feeding Dakota Gold or conventional DDGS to pigs from weaning to market. Because limited information exists about effects of pelleting on growth performance of pigs fed diets that contain DDGS, this research also tested the effects of feeding diets containing either Dakota Gold or conventional DDGS in a meal form or in a pelleted form.

Experimental design

A total of 192 barrows and gilts were used in this experiment. In each phase, four diets were fed: meal or pelleted diets containing Dakota Gold, or meal or pelleted diets containing conventional DDGS. All diets were based on corn and soybean meal, but had different amounts of DDGS added depending on phase. Diets were formulated to be equal in SID amino acids. The concentration of ME was allowed to vary among diets, with conventional DDGS diets containing slightly more ME than Dakota Gold diets because of the greater ME of conventional DDGS.

Pigs were weaned at 21 days of age, and a common phase 1 diet was provided during the initial 7 days post weaning. On day 8 post-weaning, pigs were allotted to experimental diets. Pigs were fed phase 2 diets containing 15% DDGS from days 7 to 21 post weaning and phase 3 diets containing 30% DDGS from days 21 to 43 post weaning.

After the weanling period, pigs were fed grower diets from day 1 to38 of the growing-finishing period, early finisher diets from day 38 to 76, and late finisher diets from d 76 to 94. All diets in the growing-finishing period contained 30% DDGS.

Daily feed allotments and were recorded and feed left in the feeders was weighted on the last day of each phase. Individual pig weights were also recorded on the last day of each phase. Data for pig weights and feed consumption were used to calculate average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and gain:feed ratio for each treatment group within each phase.

At the end of the experiment, the pig in each pen with a body weight closest to the average for the pen was harvested at the Meat Science Laboratory at University of Illinois. Hot carcass weight, dressing percentage, backfat thickness at the 10^th rib, and loin eye area were measured. Fat-free lean was determined using the following equation and converted to kg.

Pounds fat-free lean = 8.588 – 21.896 * 10^th rib backfat (in.) + 0.465 * HCW (lbs.) + 3.005 * Longissimus [loin eye] muscle area (sq. in.)

Growth performance

In phase 2 of the nursery period, (days 7 to21), pigs fed conventional DDGS had a greater (P < 0.05) gain:feed ratio than pigs fed diets containing Dakota Gold DDGS (Table 1). There were no differences in average daily gain, average daily feed intake, or final body weight in Phase 2 between pigs fed the two different sources of DDGS. Pigs fed Dakota Gold did not differ from pigs fed conventional DDGS on any growth parameters in phase 3 (days 21 to 43) or for the overall nursery period.

Average daily gain and average daily feed intake were greater (P < 0.05) by pigs fed conventional DDGS than pigs fed Dakota Gold during the initial 38 days of the growing-finishing period (Table 2). No other differences were observed between pigs fed the two different sources of DDGS during the growing-finishing period.

Pigs fed diets in meal form had greater (P < 0.05) average daily feed intake than pigs fed pelleted diets during the nursery period and the early phases of the growing-finishing period. Pigs fed meal diets also had greater (P < 0.05) average daily gain in nursery phase 2 and the growing phase than pigs fed pelleted diets. Average daily gain over the total nursery period and the total growing-finishing period was not influenced by diet form.

Pigs fed pelleted diets had a greater (P < 0.05) gain:feed ratio for both the nursery period and the growing-finishing period compared with pigs fed meal diets.

Carcass characteristics

Pigs fed conventional DDGS and pigs fed Dakota Gold did not differ for any of the carcass characteristics measured in this experiment (Table 3).

Pigs fed pelleted diets had greater (P < 0.05) back fat thickness than pigs fed meal diets. In addition, there was a tendency (P < 0.10) for increased hot carcass weight and decreased fat free lean percentage for pigs fed pelleted diets. These effects were probably due to the greater concentration of metabolizable energy in pelleted diets compared with meal diets.

Key points

• Feeding Dakota Gold did not have a negative effect on growth performance in the overall weanling or growing-finishing periods compared with feeding conventional DDGS.
• The gain:feed ratio was greater in both weanling pigs and growing-finishing pigs when diets were fed in a pelleted form than when diets were fed in a meal form.
• Carcass characteristics were not different for  pigs fed Dakota Gold and conventional DDGS, and with the exception of backfat depth, no differences in carcass characteristics between pigs fed meal diets and pigs fed pelleted diets were observed.

Table 1. Growth performance of weanling pigs fed experimental diets

Table 2. Growth performance of growing-finishing pigs fed experimental diets

Table 3. Carcass characteristics of pigs fed experimental diets

This report is based on unpublished research by Diego Rodriguez, Su A Lee, and Hans H. Stein.