Soybean meal is the principal amino acid (AA) source in diets for pigs, and it is recognized that the AA profile of soybean meal is superior to that of other oilseed meals. However, new varieties that have different characteristics are sometimes developed and an example of such a new variety 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 ileal digestibility (AID) of crude protein (CP) and AA, and the standardized ileal digestibility (SID) of CP and AA are not different in soybean meal produced from Photoseed soybeans compared with control soybean meal when fed to pigs.

Lee, Su A, Diego A. Rodriguez, Hans H. Stein. 2022. Effects of Different Watering Options on Standardized Ileal Digestibility of Amino Acids and net Energy in Diets fed to Growing Pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 100, (Suppl. 3) 118, doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac247.227. Link to full text.

Nelson, Megan E., Su A Lee, Yueming Dersjant-Li, Janet Remus, and Hans H. Stein. 2022. Microbial phytase reduces basal endogenous loss of calcium in pigs fed diets containing phytate phosphorus at commercial levels. Journal of Animal Science, 2022, 100, 1–7. doi.org/10.1093/jas/skac280. Link to full text.

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.

Field peas have been produced mainly for human consumption, but lastly, the industry has been included in diets fed to livestock due to its content of starch and protein. In diets for swine, only peas that are harvested at maturity are used. Almost 80% of P in non-oilseed legumes is bound to phytate, and pigs do not synthesize an adequate amount of endogenous phytate to liberate the P bound to phytate. Therefore, the digestibility of P in field peas is relatively low. Values for apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) and standardized total tract digestibility (STTD) of P in field peas have been reported, but there are no comparative values for the ATTD and STTD of P among different varieties of field peas at different particle sizes. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that there are no differences in the ATTD and the STTD of P among different sources of field peas fed to young pigs and the second hypothesis was that there is a linear increase in the ATTD and STTD of P as the particle size of field peas increases.

Lee, Su A, H. H. Stein. 2022. Apparent ileal digestibility of amino acids by pigs is not affected by increasing dietary calcium from deficient to excess concentrations, but phosphorus digestibility is reduced. Animal Feed Science and Technology 292 (2022) 115436. doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2022.115436. Link to full text.

Lee, S. A, and H. H. Stein. 2022. Vitamin D and vitamin D metabolites impact on calcium and phosphorus balance in gestating sows. Proc. 21th Annual Midwest Swine Nutrition Conf. Danville, IN, Sep. 8, 2022. Pages 39-43. Link to full text.

SylPro enhanced torula yeast is a high protein feed ingredient derived from forestry by-products, and results from digestibility experiments indicate that SylPro yeast may be a great source of energy and digestible amino acids in diets fed to weanling pigs. Previous experiments further demonstrated that increasing levels of SylPro yeast resulted in increased feed efficiency of pigs, which is likely a result of a positive effect of SlyPro yeast on intestinal health and immune function of pigs. However, there are no data to demonstrate effects of SylPro yeast on the immune response of pigs. It is also not known if SylPro yeast influences pig performance and intestinal health similarly as conventional torula yeast. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that inclusion of SylPro yeast in diets fed to pigs improves growth performance and intestinal health. The second objective was to determine if there are differences between the two torula yeast sources in influencing growth performance and immune response of pigs.

Bailey, H., J. Campbell, and H. H. Stein. 2022. The combination of spray dried plasma and reduced crude protein in diets decreases circulating cytokines of weanling pigs. 15th International Symposium on Digestive Physiology of Pigs. Animal - Science Proceedings 13(Issue 2): 214. Link to abstract.