Lee, J. W., F. K. McKeith, and H. H. Stein. 2012. Up to 30% corn germ may be included in diets fed to growing–finishing pigs without affecting pig growth performance, carcass composition, or pork fat quality. J. Anim. Sci. 90:4933-4942. Link to full text (.pdf)

Corn germ is a co-product of the wet milling industry that is available for use in swine diets to partially replace the more expensive corn grain. Results of arecent experiment indicated that including 15% corn germ in diets containing 30% DDGS had no negative effects on pig growth performance, carcass composition, or pork fat quality. However, it is not known if greater quantities of corn germ may be included in diets fed to growing-finishing pigs. Therefore, we conducted an experiment to determine if greater levels of corn germ may be included in diets fed to growing-finishing pigs without negatively affecting growth performance, carcass characteristics, muscle and fat quality, or belly quality. The experiment also determined if the presence of DDGS in the diets influences the responses to the inclusion of corn germ.

Almeida, F. N., G. I. Petersen, and H. H. Stein. 2011. Digestibility of amino acids in corn, corn co-­products, and bakery meal fed to growing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 89(E-Suppl. 1):441 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

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

February, 2011

Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) is the most common co-product generated from the ethanol industry and the production in the US of DDGS is now greater than the production of soybean meal. While DDGS is an excellent feed ingredient that in most cases can be included in diets fed to all groups of pigs at levels of at least 20 to 30%, there are also other corn co-products that may be used in diets fed to pigs.

Widmer, M. R., L. M. McGinnis, D. M. Wulf, and H. H. Stein. 2007. Effects of co-products from the ethanol industry on pork quality and palatability. Reciprocal Meats Conference. SD. June, 2007 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)