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Researchers: DDGS nutrition improving for pigs & poultry


ST. LOUIS, Mo. — Nutritionists continue reporting that lower-fat dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) can be an economical part of today’s swine and poultry rations, especially as ethanol plants continue to improve the level of amino acids retained in DDGS.

Fat levels are lower in today’s DDGS than in what ethanol plants produced a decade ago. While that reduces the metabolizable energy (ME) available from DDGS, ethanol plants have improved the quality of proteins available from DDGS – especially as measured against past published protein levels from the National Research Council (NRC).

“It appears that the digestibility of amino acids is greater in the sources of DDGS we have now, compared with our NRC values,” said Hans Stein, professor of nutrition at the University of Illinois.

The amount and quality of lysine available for pigs in today’s low-oil DDGS has improved. Stein’s lab at Illinois found lysine levels increased in DDGS, from 0.78 percent in 2004-05 to 0.99 in 2016. Lysine as a percentage of DDGS crude protein has also increased over the years, Stein said, in a U of I broadcast last year.

“This clearly indicates that there's less heat damage and therefore less destruction of lysine in the heating process of DDGS now than there was 10 or 12 years ago,” he said. “So this is a clear improvement of the quality of DDGS.”

The U of I lab has conducted studies including 30 percent of DDGS in rations fed to growing-finishing pigs and 10-15 percent DDGS for weanling pigs. The research showed no significant differences in performance of pigs fed DDGS all the way from weaning to finishing, compared to a traditional corn-soybean meal diet.

One caveat noted by the researchers: Weanling pigs fed the DDGS ration did have slightly lower weight gain, but that compensated during the growing-finishing period, likely because the pigs were used to the greater bulk of DDGS in the diet. But that means if a producer is selling feeder pigs, “it may not be economical to have that reduced weight,” said Stein.

There are also some studies indicating pigs fed corn-soybean meal yield a higher dressing percentage than pigs fed a DDGS diet, and “that should be taken into account when the overall effects of DDGS are estimated,” he said.

Perhaps the most important aspect for determining what percentage of DDGS to include in a ration is the DDGS source, said Bill Dozier, an Auburn University poultry nutritionist. “Having an understanding of your source of DDGS and current (nutrition) standards is very important,” said Dozier, who joined Stein in a WattAg January DDGS webinar sponsored by Dakota Gold.

For broilers, differences in the ME of DDGS can make a big economic difference. Dozier’s research found DDGS can save broiler producers from $1.52-$5.45 in feed costs per ton, depending on ME variability.

“Poultry companies use a $1 per ton savings in diet cost as a threshold,” for making ration changes, said Dozier. “DDGS in terms of ingredient price may come in and out of formulations.”

Poultry science researchers have found DDGS may be fed as 3-12 percent of broiler rations, depending on bird growth stage. Layer diets can include 15-20 percent DDGS without compromising layer reproduction, according to Dozier. “You’ve just got to understand and know your source of DDGS,” he said.

And the nutritional quality of DDGS is likely to continue to change for the better, as ethanol producers continue improving the feed value of ethanol co-products. Stein and his Illinois research team last year analyzed a high-protein DDGS produced by Lincolnway Energy, in Nevada, Iowa. That DDGS is produced by dehulling the corn before the corn goes into fermentation, then centrifuging the solubles to remove oil after fermentation.

The U of I analysis found higher amino acid content and digestibility in the high-protein DDGS from Lincolnway Energy, compared to conventional DDGS, as well as higher ME. Based on that experiment, “it appears that high protein DDGS has a higher feeding value than conventional DDGS,” said Stein.

The research report is available on the U of I website, http://nutrition.ansci.illinois.edu

2/7/2018