It is time to offer western Canadian livestock a bigger buffet of feed ingredients, says a hog researcher.
“Here in Western Canada, people think pigs only eat barley and soybean meal, but in other parts of the world, pigs eat a wide range of coproducts,” said Ruurd Zijlstra, the feed industry research chair at the University of Alberta.
“In some cases, cereal grain is only 20 percent of the total diet, which is the opposite of what we are used to.”
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Research on dried distillers grain with solubles has matured to the point where other feeds should be studied for their nutritional content and contribution to a profitable bottom line, he added. These feedstocks could come from the food manufacturing, flour milling, distilling or brewing sectors.
Zijlstra’s research has found that pigs can handle higher than previously advised levels of DDGs without affecting their health or carcass quality. The next step is to explore ways to reduce feed costs per unit of gain.
Wheat DDG levels can be 10 to 15 percent for young pigs and 20 to 30 percent for finishers. Corn based DDGs can be offered at higher levels, but further research needs to confirm the maximum inclusion rate.
“If diets are properly formulated up to these inclusion levels, there is no difference in growth performance and there is no change in carcass quality, but there will be a slight change in dressing percentage,” Zijlstra said.
His work focused on feeding wheat and corn DDGs to starter and grower pigs to assess weight gain, feed efficiency and meat yield.
“What people need to be really careful about is when they purchase DDGs, what is really the origin of the material?” he said.
The nutrient profiles of the two products are different, which means formulations need to take into account lysine levels, amino acids and net energy.
Carcass fat may be softer, so those involved in a high-value, export market may prefer to stay with barley because it produces a hard, white fat.
“With corn DDGs, the fatty acid profile changes because corn has more unsaturated fatty acids,” he said. “The fat in the carcass may be softer than people are used to.”
Overheated DDGs could also be a problem because they affect lysine content that could ultimately affect pig performance.
Beef researcher John McKinnon of the University of Saskatchewan has found similar results after 20 years of working with DDGs.
The most recent work from unpublished research increased DDGs in feedlot steers’ diets with no ill effects.
Researchers looked at corn and wheat based diets as well as DDGs containing a blend. Steers were fed a controlled diet of 87 percent rolled barley, seven percent silage and six percent supplement.
They substituted 20 or 40 percent DDGs derived from wheat or corn for an equal amount of barley.
The byproducts offer a different nutrient profile than straight grain.
Starch is removed when the grain is fermented, and the remaining nutrients such as protein, fat, fibre and minerals are concentrated three fold.
Protein levels in wheat increase to 38 to 40 percent in the byproduct from 14 percent. Corn protein of eight to 10 percent increases to 28 to 30 percent in the fermented product.
Wheat has more fibre but the corn is higher in fat, an important source of energy.
“The corn has the potential to be more valuable, as it has a higher energy content to it,” McKinnon said.
However, fat content also increases as the percentage of corn distillers grain is added.
“If you went up to 40 percent, you would be adding four to five percent added fat,” he said. “At those levels, you have got the potential to have a negative effect on intake.”
Animals on corn DDGs ate less but gained as well as the animals on the control diet to a certain point. Those receiving 40 percent DDGs showed some negative effects in feed efficiency.
