Stein, H. H. 2010. Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and the use of phytase to address digestibility issues in pigs. In Proc. 46^th Eastern Nutr. Conf., May 12-13, 2010, Guelph, Ontario. Link to full text (.pdf)

Raw soybeans contain antinutritional factors such as trypsin inhibitors (TI) and lectins.  The production of soybean meal involves a heating step, which reduces these anti-nutritional factors. However, conventional soybean meal contains compounds which can cause digestive disturbances in weanling pigs. Soybean meal is therefore limited in pig starter diets. Other protein sources, such as fish meal, casein, and soy protein isolate, are used for young pigs.

Two new soybean products were recently introduced to the U.S. feed market.  Fermented soybean meal (FSBM) and enzyme-treated soybean meal (ESBM) are believed to have a lower concentration of antinutritional factors and a higher concentration of crude protein and amino acids than conventional soybean meal.  They are also believed to be better tolerated by young pigs. However, not much is known about the digestibility of the protein in these two products.

This experiment was conducted to compare the digestibility of amino acids in weanling pigs of FSBM, ESBM, conventional de-hulled soybean meal, fish meal, casein, and soy protein isolate.

Stein, H. H., D. N. Peters, and B. G. Kim. 2010. Effects of including raw or extruded field peas (Pisum sativum L.) in diets fed to weanling pigs. J. Sci. Food Agric. 90:1429-1436. Link to full text (.pdf)

Most corn hybrids grown in the US are genetically modified to resist certain pests or to tolerate certain herbicides. Numerous studies have been conducted to determine the nutritional value of corn that is genetically modified for pest resistance, but there are no published reports about feeding corn that has been modified for both pest resistance and insecticide tolerance to pigs. Investigation into the nutritional value of such corn is, however, warranted, because the use of crops with multiply stacked traits is rapidly increasing; approximately 35 million acres of crops with double- and triple-stacked traits were planted in the United States in 2006.

Two experiments were, therefore, conducted to determine if the nutritional value of corn grain with multiple genetically modified traits is different from that of nontransgenic corn. The hypothesis in both experiments was that pigs fed transgenic corn would not differ in growth performance or carcass characteristics from pigs fed nontransgenic corn.

Urriola, P. E., and H. H. Stein. 2010. Effects of distillers dried grains with solubles on amino acid, energy, and fiber digestibility and on hindgut fermentation of dietary fiber in a corn-soybean meal diet fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 88:1454-1462. Link to full text (.pdf)

Ziemer, C. J., B. J. Kerr, S. L. Trabue, H. H. Stein, D. A. Stahl, and S. K. Davidson. 2009. Dietary protein and cellulose effects on chemical and microbial characteristics of swine feces and stored manure.  J. Env. Qual. 38:2138-2146. Link to full text (.pdf)

By Dr. Hans H. Stein

March 2010

Many companies that are producing DDGS have started to centrifuge or skim off the fat from the DDGS. These companies then sell the fat for biodiesel production at a price that is much greater than what they can usually obtain for DDGS. The consequence of this practice is that the concentration of fat in DDGS is reduced from 10 to 11% in conventional DDGS to between 6 and 8 % in the centrifuged low-fat DDGS. This DDGS has a reduced concentration of energy and has, therefore, also a reduced value when fed to livestock. Conventional DDGS with 10 to 11% fat has a concentration of digestible energy that is similar to that in corn. However, if the concentration of fat in DDGS is reduced by 3 to 5% then the energy value of that product is reduced considerably.

Stein, H. H., T. E. Sauber, D. W. Rice, M. A. Hinds, B. L. Smith, G. Dana, D. N. Peters, and P. Hunst. 2009. Growth performance and carcass composition of pigs fed corn grain from DAS-Ø15Ø7-1 (Herculex I) hybrids. Prof. Anim. Scientist 25:689-694. Link to full text (.pdf)

Boucher, S. E., S. Calsamiglia, C. M. Parsons, H. H. Stein, M. D. Stern, P. S. Erickson, P. L. Utterback, and C. G. Schwab. 2009. Intestinal digestibility of amino acids in rumen undegraded protein estimated using a precision-fed rooster bioassay: I. Soybean meal and SoyPlus. J. Dairy Sci. 92:4489-4498. Link to full text (.pdf)