One of the biggest questions facing the swine and livestock industry is the price and availability of corn in the future.

Dramatic increases in ethanol production in the Midwest have resulted in local corn prices reaching well over $3 per bushel, and many analysts are speculating the possibility of $4/bu. corn in the next couple of years.

Many pork producers are considering alternative options to replace some of the corn in their rations, and an ingredient that has come up more than any other is distiller’s dried grains with solubles. A co-product of ethanol production, corn DDGS contains approximately three times the level of protein of corn, and University of Minnesota research has shown its energy concentration to be similar to that of corn, making it an attractive replacement ingredient to consider using in the swine diet.

Additionally, increased ethanol production means increased production of DDGS. An understanding of how to properly use this ingredient in growing pig diets, and the resultant effect on growth performance and carcass quality, is necessary.

U of M research conducted several years ago indicated that including 10 percent DDGS in conventional swine grower-finisher diets had no detrimental effect on pig performance, carcass quality or pork quality. Feeding 20 percent or 30 percent DDGS in this study did not affect muscle composition or quality, but did increase the softness of fat, which is a concern when further processing portions of the carcass such as bellies.

Feed intake was unaffected by DDGS level in the diet, but increasing inclusion levels resulted in poorer growth rate. This study, however, did not formulate diets on a digestible amino acid basis, and utilized soybean oil in increasing levels with increasing DDGS inclusion. These details on how diets were formulated could explain the poorer results observed for growth and carcass characteristics.

A field trial recently completed by U of M researchers, in cooperation with Land O’Lakes Purina Feed, evaluated the impact of 10 percent DDGS inclusion in conventional corn-soybean meal grow-finish diets on growth, carcass and fat characteristics.

Two identical 1,000-head finishing barns were utilized, containing pigs from common genetics and health status. Diets were formulated to be equivalent in energy and digestible amino acid content for each of the seven phases used, with choice white grease included at similar levels to increase energy density of diets.

At the time of market, 128 pigs from each group were evaluated for carcass quality traits. Pigs fed the 10 percent DDGS grew equally well while consuming less feed, resulting in improved feed conversion, and therefore had a lower feed cost per pound of gain ($0.16 versus $0.17). Carcass weight, backfat thickness, loin depth and percent lean muscle in the carcass was unaffected by dietary treatment. Fat quality, as measured by iodine value, decreased with DDGS inclusion, but was still within industry standards of acceptable pork fat quality.

Based on these results and reports our group has heard from many different pork producers feeding DDGS, there is no concern when feeding grower-finisher diets containing 10 percent DDGS on carcass or pork quality. Economically, DDGS has typically sold on the market for about 85 percent the cost of corn on a dry matter weight basis. We would expect no difference in growth performance or feed intake, on average, when feeding DDGS at 10 percent of the diet.

For $3/bu. corn, $91/ton DDGS and $185/ton soybean meal, this equates to a feed cost savings of $1.55/head.

Other issues must be weighed against these positive cost savings, such as need for extra bin(s) to hold DDGS and flowability, but it is apparent that DDGS inclusion is an alternative all swine producers should be considering. The University of Minnesota has compiled information on feeding distiller’s co-products to swine, dairy, beef and poultry at www.ddgs.umn.edu.