Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) can be fed in swine diets at an inclusion rate of up to 30% without negatively affecting pig growth performance. However, DDGS contains high levels of polyunsaturated fatty acids (PUFA), which may promote deposition of unsaturated dietary fatty acids in adipose tissue. Consequently, inclusion of DDGS at more than 20% has been shown to result in increased fat iodine values (IV) and soft belly production.  The disadvantages of this decrease in fat quality include reduced shelf life, increased susceptibility to oxidative damage, and reduced belly sliceability.

An experiment was performed to determine if the addition of different sources of saturated fat would improve belly fat quality in pigs fed a DDGS-based diet. In addition, the hypothesis that the iodine value product (IVP) of the diet can be used to predict backfat IV and belly fat IV of pigs fed diets containing DDGS was tested.

By Dr. Hans H. Stein

July, 2011

We are now at a time of the year when most of the small grain crops have been harvested, but we are still a few month away from having new-crop corn available. In many areas of the Midwest, it is, therefore, possible to purchase wheat, barley, or oats at a price that is less than that of corn. In many cases, this is an opportunity to reduce diet costs. With corn trading close to 7 dollars per bushel, there may be opportunities for reducing diet costs if small grains are available.

By Dr. Hans H. Stein

May, 2011

In the April newsletter, opportunities for using high-fiber feed ingredients in diets fed to pigs were discussed and recommended inclusion rates for a number of high-fiber ingredients were provided. It is assumed that if high-fiber ingredients are included in the diets at the recommended inclusion rates, pig growth performance will not be affected. There are, however, other consequences of using high-fiber ingredients that also need to be considered before these ingredients are included in the diets.

Copra and palm kernel co-products are commonly fed to ruminant animals in some parts of the world. However, very limited research has been reported on the use of these ingredients in swine diets. No values are listed in the NRC (1998) for copra expellers, palm kernel expellers, or palm kernel meal.

The majority of phosphorus in conventional soybean meal is bound in the phytate complex. Pigs do not secrete the phytase enzyme, so phytate-bound phosphorus is not digested and is excreted in the feces. Not only does this deprive pigs of an essential nutrient, but excessive phosphorus excretion can contribute to environmental problems as well.

Addition of microbial phytase is one strategy for increasing the digestibility of phosphorus in soybean meal. Another potentially effective strategy is to feed fermented soybean meal.  Fermentation may result in hydrolysis of phytate and release of phytate-bound phosphorus, thus making more phosphorus available to the pig.

Stein, H. H. 2010. Materias primas alternativas en nutrición porcina: 2. Granos secos de destilería con solubles. Pages 34-45 in Suis, December 2010. Link to full text (.pdf)

Stein, H. H. 2011. Energy and nutrient concentration and digestibility in alternative feed ingredients and recommended inclusion rates. In Proceedings of the American Association of Swine Veterinarians 42nd Annual Meeting. Phoenix, AZ. Link to full text (.pdf)

Rising costs of traditional swine feeds are causing many producers to look for alternative feedstuffs to deliver nutritional value at a lower cost. The corn milling and fermentation industries, and the human food industry, create co-products which can be fed to livestock.  One of these, distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), has been found to be suitable for inclusion in swine diets up to 30%. Other co-products have not been as extensively studied. This experiment was performed to measure the apparent (AID) and standardized (SID) ileal digestibility of crude protein and amino acids in corn gluten meal, corn gluten feed, corn germ meal, hominy feed, and bakery meal in growing pigs and to compare these values to the values observed for DDGS and corn.

Goebel, K. P., and H. H. Stein. 2011. Phosphorus digestibility and energy concentration of enzyme-treated and conventional soybean meal fed to weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 89:764–772. Link to full text (.pdf)