Espinosa, Charmaine D., Leidy J. Torres-Mendoza, and Hans H. Stein. 2023. Torula yeast may improve intestinal health and immune function of weanling pigs. Journal of Animal Science: 101, 1–11. doi.org/10.1093/jas/skad087. Link to full text.

Espinosa, C. D., and H. H. Stein. 2023. Variability in wheat middlings; are there differences in digestibility, composition among sources?  National Hog Farmer, March/April 2023. Link to full text.

Drying temperatures and corn varieties that inherently differ in kernel hardness, virtuousness, and protein solubility index may influence nutrient digestibility in corn. However, information about interactive effects of corn source (i.e., endosperm hardness) and drying method on nutrient digestibility is limited. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the ileal digestibility of starch, crude protein (CP), and amino acids (AA) is influenced by corn source and drying temperature.

New sources of high protein corn co-products have been recently developed and may be included in diets fed to pigs. Phytase is often employed during fermentation in the bioethanol process to improve the efficiency of fermentation. However, the use of phytase during fermentation may impact the nature of phosphorus (P) in any post fermentation products, which could subsequently alter the levels of phytate-bound and non-phytate P. As a consequence, this may influence digestibility and concentration of digestible P in any feed product derived from fermentation. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of P in high protein corn fermented products and in the residual distillers dried grains and solubles (DDGS) produced from a fermentation with or without the use of phytase. It is also the objective of this experiment to test the hypothesis that inclusion of phytase during the fermentation process increases P digestibility in corn co-products.

Data have been published for the composition of wheat middlings from flour mills in the U.S. and data for digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) have been reported as well. However, it is not known if the data obtained in wheat middlings from the U.S. also are representative for wheat middlings in Europe. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the null hypothesis that there are no differences in composition, apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of gross energy (GE), and concentration of DE and ME between wheat middlings sourced from flour mills in Europe and in the U.S.

New sources of high protein corn co-products have been recently developed and may be included in diets fed to pigs. High protein corn fermented products have been evaluated in several economically important livestock species, but additional information is required with respect to the use of these products in pigs. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to evaluate the digestible energy (DE) and metabolizable energy (ME) of high protein corn fermented products and in Post MSC DDGS.

New sources of high protein corn co-products have been recently developed and may be included in diets fed to pigs. High protein corn fermented products have been evaluated in several economically important livestock species, but additional information is required with respect to the use of these products in pigs. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in high protein corn fermented products and in the residual distillers dried grains and solubles (DDGS) is greater than in soybean meal (SBM).

The majority of P in oilseed co-products is bound to phytate; however, pigs do not synthesize adequate amount of endogenous phytate to liberate the P bound to phytate and the digestibility of P in sunflower meal, therefore is low. Values for ATTD and STTD of P in sunflower meal (SFM) without and with phytase have been reported, but there are no comparative values for the ATTD and STTD of P in sunflower co-products produced in different parts of the world. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to determine the ATTD and the STTD of P in different sources of sunflower co-products, and to test the hypothesis that regardless of source, microbial phytase increases the digestibility of P in sunflower co-products fed to young pigs.

Espinosa, C. D., J. Campbell, H. H. Stein. 2022. Effect of Hydrolyzed Spray-Dried Bovine Plasma and Spray-Dried Bovine Plasma Sources on Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 100(Suppl. 2): 137–138. doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac064.235. Link to Abstr.