Leonid Podobyed ,Doctor of Agricultural science , professor, Institute of Animal Husbandry of the Academy of Agrarian Science of Ukraine AS

The main difference of native and foreign feed compounds is in grain content, which is much higher in native feed compounds. It is a popular opinion that Ukraine is a grain country and can afford itself to use grain in feeding animals and poultry. Feeder grain, of course, is a perfect compound of feeds. But Poland for instance is not a grain country but it exports its pork to Ukraine and has a good income. This fact should make the Ukrainian producer analyze his approach to the technology of pork production. The main way to decrease the cost of production is to decrease feeding costs. As 65% of all production expenses are concentrated in feeding. It means that decreasing feeding expenses one can make profit even with the same performance of pigs. But only those who will be able to use cheaper non grain feeds will be in the money.

The main way to decrease the cost of production is to decrease feeding costs

There are a lot of non-grain sources for feeds in Ukraine. But the most valuable are those that go for processing dry or crumbled.

One of the valuable sources for feeds can be Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles.

Distillery stillage is a byproduct of microbiological production which is an effective protein additive in which a lot of bioactive substances (vitamins, carotenoids, carboxylic acids) are concentrated

Dried Distillers Grains with Solubles of high quality is a dry powdered product of toffee colour which has a smell of bread and sweet taste.

If distillery stillage is a by product of the processing of high quality food grain then it is absolutely safe with regard to mycotoxin contamination. DDGS is a valuable protein concentrate with a high content of crude protein and important for pigs amino acids.

Organoleptical properties and chemical composition of DDGS depends on the quality of grain and on the peculiarities of the technology of making stillage residue and drying the product.

DDGS has more fiber, fat and crude ash in the comparison with grain. DDGS has twice less fiber than cake and mill.

DDGS has a high concentration of B vitamins, mineral substances (especially phosphorus) which are of vital importance when balancing feeding.

The calculations show that DDGS can be added to feeds for different age groups decreasing the content of grain and expensive protein additives.

The combination of DDGS with traditional additives allows to decrease the grain part in feeds up to 52-64%or by 5-7%.As a consequence the cost of feeds may be decreased by 5.5-8.9%.

Besides DDGS is perfectly combined with sunflower cake.

Thus DDGS is an important compound in feeding pigs. By adding5-14 %of DDGS to feeds grain compounds can be saved, less synthetical amino acids and feed phosphates can be used. It can also be an alternative to yeast. It all makes feeds 9% cheaper remaining the performance of pigs the same.

What is the influence of DDGS addition to feeds on pigs that suffer from excess fiber?

How does the usage of DDGS increase the nutritive value of feeds?

You can read more in the magazine publication «Profitable Pig Production», № 4 (6), December 2011.