When ambient temperature exceeds the thermal neutral zone, pigs experience heat stress that reduces productive performance. Alternative co-products such as canola meal and corn distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) contain more fiber than soybean meal (SBM), which may increase heat production in pigs and may exacerbate heat stress compared with SBM, which contains less fiber and provides bioactive components that may support immune function. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that growing pigs fed diets containing soybean meal perform better under heat stress than pigs fed diets containing canola meal or corn DDGS.

Kim, Yeonwoo, Hans H. Stein. 2026. Ileal Digestibility of Amino Acids in Pistachio Blanks and Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs Fed Diets Containing Pistachio Blanks as a Source of Fiber. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 104, Issue Supplement_3, skag107.203, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag107.203 Link to abstract.

Stein, Hans H. 2026. Implications of Increased Nitrogen Retention in Modern Pigs. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 104, Issue Supplement_3, skag107.034, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag107.034 Link to abstract.

Lee, Su A, Hans H Stein. 2026. Determination of Net Energy and Nitrogen Balance in Group-housed Pigs Fed Diets Containing Varying Levels of Fiber from Soybean Hulls. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 104, Issue Supplement_3, skag107.168, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag107.168 Link to abstract.

Kim, Yeonwoo, Hans H. Stein. 2026. Ileal Digestibility of Amino Acids in Pistachio Blanks and Growth Performance of Weanling Pigs Fed Diets Containing Pistachio Blanks as a Source of Fiber. Journal of Animal Science, Volume 104, Issue Supplement_3, skag107.203 doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag107.203 Link to abstract.

Stein, H. H. 2026. Use of feed technology to improve energy and nutrient utilization of diets for growing pigs. Book of abstracts. IFTC 2026. 3^rd International Feed Technology Congress. Victam. Utrecht. The Netherlands, June 2-3, 2026. Page 11-14. Link to full text.

Acosta, Jessica P., Lia V. Guardiola, Neil W. Jaworski, Hans H. Stein. 2026. Soluble dietary fiber, insoluble dietary fiber, and total dietary fiber in feed ingredients used in diets for pigs. Journal of Animal Science, 2026, 104, skag141 doi.org/10.1093/jas/skag141 Link to full text.

Canola meal and soybean meal (SBM) are the most commonly used sources of amino acids in diets for swine. However, via genetic selection, varieties of canola with greater concentrations of crude protein and reduced concentrations of fiber have been identified. Following oil extraction, the resulting high-protein canola meal (CM-HP) contains 3 to 5 % more crude protein than conventional canola meal (CM-CV). It is, therefore, expected that CM-HP contains more digestible and metabolizable energy than CM-CV, but this hypothesis has not been experimentally verified (Liu et al., 2016). Therefore, it is the objective of this experiment to determine the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of energy and concentrations of digestible energy (DE) in CM-HP, CM-CV, and SBM when fed to lactating sows.

Soybean meal (SBM) is commonly used as a source of amino acids in swine diets because of its high protein content (Kudelka et al., 2021).  In addition, SBM contributes with energy and phosphorus (P). However, high portion of the P in SBM is bound to phytate, which is indigestible by pigs. Therefore, microbial phytase enzyme is supplemented in swine diets. The impact of phytase on the digestibility of P is well documented, however some experiments on digestibility in corn–SBM diets has been reported energy increase if microbial phytase was used (Liao et al., 2005; Arredondo et al., 2019; Lala et al., 2020; Espinosa et al., 2022), but, not in others (She et al., 2018; Mesina et al., 2019; Lamp and Moritz, 2022). There is, however, a lack of information about the impact of microbial phytase on the digestibility of energy in SBM. It is also not known if a possible effect of microbial phytase on energy digestibility in SBM is consistent among different sources of SBM.