Effects of Distiller’s Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) and Corn Germ Meal (CGM) on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing-finishing pigs, and determination of the productive energy content of DDGS and CGM

A growth performance experiment was carried out over the grow-finish period to evaluate the effect of dietary inclusion level of Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles (DDGS) and Corn Germ meal (CGM) on growth performance and carcass characteristics. In addition, the results of the growth study were used to determine the Productive ME (PME) content of DDGS and CGM by correcting ME estimates for caloric efficiency relative to a control (reference) diet. The experiment was carried out as randomized complete block design (blocking factor was day of start of test) with a 4 × 2 factorial arrangement of treatments. There were 4 dietary treatments: 1.) Control- Corn-soybean meal, 2.) Dried Distiller’s Grains with Solubles- 15% inclusion, 3.) Dried Distiller’s Grains with Solubles- 30% inclusion, 4.) Corn Germ Meal- 20% inclusion and 2 sex treatments: barrows and gilts. A total of 3,072 pigs were allotted to 96 single-sex pens of 32 pigs to achieve 24 replicates per dietary treatment. The study was carried out from 10 weeks post- weaning (48.1 ± 3.18 kg) to approximately 22 weeks post- weaning (132.2 ±8.05 kg). A 4-phase dietary program was used, with diets being formulated within phase to be isocaloric (supplemental fat was used), and to a similar SID lysine to energy ratio. All diets were formulated to meet or exceed requirements proposed by the NRC (2012) for the weights of pigs used. The control (corn-soybean meal) was used as a reference diet to compare the DDGS and CGM diets with to estimate PME. Caloric efficiency was calculated for each treatment (from the feed:gain ratio). The ME value for DDGS used to formulate diets (3,003 kcal/kg) was based on published values and the ME value used for CGM (2,579 kcal/kg) was from Estrada (2017). The pen of pigs was the experimental unit; data were analyzed using PROC MIXED of SAS with the model including the fixed effect of dietary treatment and sex, random effect of block and replicate. Results indicated that there were no differences (P > 0.05) between dietary treatments for live weight at the end of test or overall average daily gain. The CGM treatment had lower (P < 0.05) average daily feed intake for the overall period than the other 3 treatments that were not different (P > 0.05) feed intakes. Overall gain:feed ratio was reduced (P < 0.05) for the DDGS 30% treatment than for the other 3 treatments. There was no effect (P > 0.05) of dietary treatment on carcass yield or backfat depth. Longissimus muscle depth was greater (P < 0.05) for the pigs on the Control treatment than the other 3 treatments. The PME estimated from the caloric efficiency (calculated from the feed:gain ratio) for DDGS 15%, DDGS 30%, and CGM were 98%, 91.9% and 108%, respectively of the original ME value used in diet formulation. These results suggest that inclusion of DDGS at 15% and CGM at 20% in diets for growing-finishing pigs had no negative impact on growth performance; however, including DDGS at a 30% of the diet had a negative effect on feed efficiency. There was considerable difference between PME estimates based on the growth study and the values originally used to formulate the experimental diets. In addition, the estimate of the PME of DDGS was considerably different between the two inclusion rates evaluated. Collectively, these results raise concerns about the variation found in PME estimates both between and within studies. Further research is required to understand the causes of this variation.

Name thesis:degree_name

M.S.

Level thesis:degree_level

Thesis

Discipline thesis:degree_discipline

Animal Sciences

Grantor

University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign

Year dc:date

2020

Author dc:creator

• Harper, Heath Matthew

Contributors dc:contributor

• Ellis, Michael

• pigs
• DDGS
• CGM
• productive energy

Statement dc:rights

• Copyright 2019 Heath Matthew Harper

Language dc:language

en

Handle dc:identifier

http://hdl.handle.net/2142/106169

OAI identifier oai:identifier

oai:www.ideals.illinois.edu:2142/106169