Glycerin might not sound yummy, but both young and adult pigs appear to like the stuff.
That means hog producers might be able to use a growing resource on the Prairies, because more biodiesel production means more glycerin production.
“The research on (glycerin) has shown that pigs can perform equal to or better than pigs on control diets,” said LeAnn Johnston of Amlan International of Chicago.
Johnston gave producers at the Manitoba Swine Seminar a survey of research into the impact of glycerin in pig diets, and most makes glycerol appear to be a worthwhile feed ingredient for nursery and feeder pigs.
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Pigs did at least as well as pigs on non-glycerin diets and their meat quality did not suffer.
Canadian beef diets can contain glycerin, but it has not been approved for swine diets, Johnston said.
If it is approved, farmers need to be careful about a number of factors:
• methanol content – methanol in small amounts can be toxic to livestock and is present in glycerin in variable amounts;
• energy content – depending on water content and other variables, the energy contained by glycerin varies;
• flowability – at above six percent content, glycerin can begin to make mash diets sticky and give feed handling systems problems;
• salt content – sodium chloride levels in glycerin are variable, so producers must measure and balance the salt in the glycerin with that of the rest of the feed.
While glycerin is not approved for pig diets, Johnston said it will probably become an attractive ingredient because it is becoming widely available, will likely be inexpensive, and it works.
With 60 percent of the cost of pig diets coming from energy components, cheap glycerin could find a place.
Johnston said she has heard that glycerol priced at 75 percent of the cost of corn would be economic.
Canada is expected to be soon producing 480 million litres per year of biodiesel and for every litre of biodiesel, 79 grams of glycerin is produced.
