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.

Lancheros, J. P., C. D. Espinosa, S. A. Lee, M. S. Oliveira, and H. H. Stein. 2022. Fiber in Swine Nutrition. L. I. Chiba, editor, Sustainable Swine Nutrition. 2nd rev. ed. doi:10.1002/9781119583998.ch14. Link to full text.

More than half of P in soybeans are bound to phytate which causes a low digestibility of P when fed to pigs. However, new varieties that have different characteristics are sometimes developed and an example is the Photoseed variety of soybeans that captures more carbon and sunlight leading to a more nutrient rich ingredient and a reduced footprint from crop production. There is, however, no information about the nutritional value of the soybean meal produced from the Photoseed variety of soybeans. Therefore, the objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and the standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of P is not different in soybean meal produced from Photoseed soybeans compared with control soybean meal when fed to pigs.

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.

McGhee, M. L.,  H. H. Stein. 2023. Preference for feed, but not growth performance, is reduced if hybrid rye replaces corn in diets for growing pigs. Animal Feed Science and Technology 296 (2023) 115566. doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2022.115566. Link to full text.

Brinck, Julius Emil, Simon Bo Lassen, Asal Forouzandeh, Ting Pan, Yan-Zi Wang, Alessandra Monteiro, Laia Blavi, David Solà-Oriol, Hans H. Stein, Jian-Qiang Su, Kristian K. Brandt. 2022. Impacts of dietary copper on the swine gut microbiome and antibiotic resistome. Science of the Total Environment 857 (2023) 159609. Link to full text.

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.

Field peas (Pisum sativum L.) have been cultivated for centuries for human consumption, due to the high nutritional quality of pea protein. However, during the last years, increasing demand for field peas for livestock feeding has developed a market in Canada, Europe, and the U.S. Therefore, as is the case with some feed ingredients, differences in soil, varieties, agronomic practices, and growing method may change the nutritional characteristics of the peas as well as the digestibility of nutrients. Besides that, differences in the particle size of field peas may change the digestibility of nutrients. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of crude protein (CP) and amino acids (AA) in field peas is affected by the particle size of the field peas and the region where the field peas were grown.

Oliveira, Maryane. S. F., Guillermo Jimenez, Hans H Stein. 2022. Effects of a Probiotic Bacillus Strain on Ileal Digestibility of Crude Protein, Starch, Energy and fat and Total Tract Digestibility of Energy and Dietary Fiber in Diets fed to Weanling Pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 100 (Suppl. 3) 118–119. doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac247.228.