February 24, 2010

Withdraw corn DDGS to maintain pork quality

Pork producers should withdraw corn DDGS from grower finisher diets two to three weeks prior to marketing to preserve backfat hardness and belly quality.

A sharp increase in the use of grain for ethanol production has increased the availability and lowered the cost of corn dried distillers grain with solubles for use in livestock rations.

Dr. Eduardo Beltranena, a feed research scientist with Alberta Agriculture and Rural Development, said corn DDGS can be included in pig diets at up to 30-35% but if those high inclusion rates are maintained to close to market weight, backfat hardness and belly quality can be reduced.

A study was conducted to investigate the withdrawal rates of corn DDGS by feeding 0-30% all the way through to market or by using a reduction from 30-20 and 20-10 and 10-0 of corn DDGS out of the last two finisher diets.

There was identical growth rates and feed intake and feed conversion efficiency to feeding no DDGS, feeding 30% DDGS or implementing any of the withdrawal strategies out of finisher diets so weight gain, feed intake, feed conversion were the same. Income over feed cost, feed cost were the same, according to Beltranena.

By implementing the corn DDGS withdrawal strategies, the negative effect that feeding high levels of corn DDGS will have on backfat hardness and the quality of the belly is expected to be mitigated, he said.