Until recently, rye has been less suitable for livestock feed than other cereal grains due to the risk of ergot contamination. However, recently developed hybrids are less susceptible to ergot contamination. There is limited information about the nutritional value of hybrid rye when fed to pigs.
In cereal grains, most of the phosphorus is bound to phytic acid, and is not available to pigs unless phytase is present. This is usually achieved by adding supplemental phytase, derived from microbes, to the diets. However, rye contains more intrinsic phytase than other cereal grains, so the phosphorus in rye may be more digestible. The addition of microbial phytase might also have less of an effect on phosphorus digestibility in rye than in other grains because of the high concentrations of intrinsic phytase in rye, but limited information about digestibility of phosphorus in rye has been reported.