On paper, wheat distillers grain appears to be a great, high protein feed source for pigs.
But it’s a different story at the trough.
“There seems to be a problem with feed intake,” said John Patience of the Prairie Swine Centre.
The problem is pigs don’t seem to like eating it, which would be bad news for producers integrating the ethanol byproduct into a hog diet.
Patience said the swine centre has done only preliminary feeding trials with wheat distillers grain, but pigs turned up their snouts at both a feed ration containing 30 percent wheat distillers grain and one containing 10 percent. The pigs ate the feed but it was less than what they were eating of regular rations.
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The centre is unsure why the pigs don’t seem to like the wheat remnants.
“We have to understand whether this is part of the process or part of the ingredient per se,” Patience said.
“What can we do to eliminate that reduction of feed intake so that we can maintain equivalent feed intake when we feed distillers grains as opposed to conventional wheat?”
