Achievements

Dr. Stein was honored to receive the Paul A. Funk Award from the college of Agricultural, Environmental, and Consumer Sciences at the University of Illinois. 

Conferences

From October 25 to 27, Dr. Stein gave some talks in Spanish at the AMENA meeting for Nutritionists in Mexico, Puerto Vallarta, Mexico:

• Actualidades sobre la nutrición de Calcio y fósforo en cerdos
• Importancia de la Calidad de las materias primas en las dietas

New Experiments

Caleb Marshall started two experiments at the farm:

• The first experiment is about: Interactive effects of reducing particle size and extrusion on concentrations of digestible energy and metabolizable energy in corn fed to growing pigs. In this experiment, pigs are individually housed in metabolism crates and fed a set amount of feed daily. Diets consisted of 3 particles sizes (300, 500, and 700 microns) and 2 presentations (raw or extruded) for a total of 6 treatments. After the 5 day adaptation period, a marker is fed and Feces and Urine are collected for 4 days; at which point another marker is fed. Over the successive days, only marked feces is collected. After the collection period several analyses are performed: DM, Ash, GE, CP, Crude Fat. Additionally, ingredients and diets will be analyzed for dietary fiber and starch digestibility. The objective of this study is to test the hypothesis that there are no interactive effects of particle size reduction and extrusion on the ATTD of GE and concentrations of digestible energy and metabolizable energy in corn fed to growing pigs.  
• The second experiment is "Feed preference of growing pigs fed diets containing different particle size of extruded corn". In this experiment, 2 pigs/pen are housed in slatted floor pens. Pigs are provided ad libitum feed from two feeders containing 2 of the 3 extruded particle sizes evaluated (300, 500, and 700 microns). All possible combinations of the three diets are tested. Daily, the residual feed contained within in each of the feeders is recorded. The feed disappearance from one feeder is divided by the total feed disappearance from the respective pen and multiplied by 100 to provide a measure of feed preference. After 8 days of recording diet preference, the data will be analyzed to determine if growing pigs have a preference for any of the 3 tested extruded particle sizes.