Effect of increasing amounts of corn/wheat DDGS in the diet of growing-finishing pigs

With the increased production of bio-ethanol in Europe over the last years, a significant amount of wheat based DDGS is produced. In previous experiments, we determined the nutrient digestibility of European DDGS batches for pigs. However, apart from providing nutrients, growth depressing factors may affect performances if included in too high concentrations. The aim of this experiment was to determine the effect of an increasing amount of DDGS with known energy and digestible amino acid concentrations. This DDGS originated from the fermentation of corn (50%) and wheat (50%).
A control diet and a diet including 30% DDGS were formulated with an equal net energy and digestible amino acid content . By mixing the two diets, 3 additional diets with intermediate DDGS level were created: 7.5%, 15% and 22.5%DDGS. A three phase feeding system (25-40, 40-70, 70-110kg) was applied.
For most parameters, it was not possible to find significant differences between groups. In the first feeding phase, performance results were best with 15% DDGS included. This effect disappeared over time. Over the whole fattening period from 25 to 110 kg, daily gain (g/day) was 728±21, 756±45, 763±55, 763±29 and 702±41 for respectively the 0, 7.5%, 15%, 22.5%, and 30% DDGS group . Overall, feed conversion ratio (g/g) was 2.64±0.03, 2.64±0.13, 2.71±0.04, 2.63±0.02, 2.75±0.06.
We suggest that an inclusion rate of DDGS up to 22.5% is possible without negatively affecting performances.