McGhee, M. L., and H. H. Stein. 2020. Hybrid rye instead of corn does not impede pig growth. National Hog Farmer, Online edition, April 30, 2020. Link to full text. 

Kim, Beob G., Su A Lee, Kyu R. Park, and Hans H. Stein. 2020. At least 3 days of adaptation are required before indigestible markers (chromium, titanium, and acid insoluble ash) are stabilized in the ileal digesta of 60-kg pigs, but values for amino acid digestibility are affected by the marker. Journal of Animal Science, 2020,  Vol. 98: No.

At weaning, pigs have to cope with abrupt withdrawal of sow milk, and this often causes appetite suppression due to marked changes in diet form and composition. Feed flavor and sweetener are believed to increase feed palatability, and subsequently improve feed intake, average daily gain, and immune response of weanling pigs. However, data that confirm this hypothesis are limited. Therefore, it was the objective of this experiment to test the hypothesis that supplementation of feed flavor and feed sweetener in diets fed to weanling pigs improve growth performance.

Espinosa, C. D., R. S. Fry, M. E. Kocher, H. H. Stein. 2020. Effects of copper hydroxychloride and dietary fiber on intestinal permeability, growth performance, and blood characteristics of nursery pigs. Animal Feed Science and Technology 263 (2020) 114447. 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 valuable source of energy and digestible amino acids in diets fed to weanling pigs. As a consequence, it is believed that Sylpro yeast may be included in diets for weanling pigs at the expense of fish meal and other animal protein sources. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that increasing levels of Sylpro yeast improve growth performance and blood characteristics of weanling pigs.

Casas, Gloria A., Laia Blavi, Tzu-Wen L. Cross, Anne H. Lee, Kelly S. Swanson, and Hans H. Stein. 2020. Inclusion of the direct-fed microbial Clostridium butyricum in diets for weanling pigs increases growth performance and tends to increase villus height and crypt depth, but does not change intestinal microbial abundance. Journal of Animal Science, 2020, 1–12. doi:10.1093/jas/skz372.

Dietary phytate may bind to proteins from feed ingredients by making indigestible nutrient-complexes. Therefore, it is possible that adding exogenous phytase to the diets increases digestibility of amino acids (AA). However, results of experiments in which microbial phytase has been added to diets fed to pigs have not consistently demonstrated increased ileal digestibility of AA. It is, however, possible that is because the dose of phytase was too low to obtain a positive effect on AA digestibility and that if greater doses were used, a positive response would be obtained. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that super dosing four different sources of commercially available exogenous phytase increases the apparent ileal digestibility (AID) of CP and AA in a corn-soybean meal (SBM) based diet fed to growing pigs.

When soybeans are crushed, the oil may be solvent extracted and the resulting defatted soybeans are known as soybean meal (SBM). However, the oil may also be mechanically expelled from the beans and the defatted soybeans resulting from this procedure is an ingredient known as soybean expellers. The expelling procedure is less efficient in removing oil from the beans and soybean expellers, therefore, contain more residual oil than SBM. Soybean expellers can be produced using different technologies, and a new procedure involving a patented high shear dry extrusion procedure was recently developed (Insta-Pro International, Des Moines, IA). There are however, no data for the apparent total tract digestibility (ATTD) of GE and total dietary fiber (TDF) and DE and ME concentrations in the soybean expellers that are produced from this procedure. Therefore, the objective of this research was to test the hypothesis that the ATTD of GE and TDF and concentrations of DE and ME are greater in soybean expellers than in SBM when fed to growing pigs.

Espinosa, C. D., R. S. Fry, J. Usry, and H. H. Stein. 2019. Effects of copper hydroxychloride and choice white grease on growth performance and blood characteristics of weanling pigs kept at normal ambient temperature or under heat stress. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol.256:114257. doi.org/10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2019.114257. Link to full text.