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Research report: Performance and carcass characteristics of growing and finishing pigs fed diets containing high protein or conventional canola meal

Canola meal can be used as a source of protein in swine diets, but conventional canola meal contains less protein than soybean meal. In recent years, new varieties of canola have been developed with seeds that contain more protein and less fiber than conventional canola seeds. The meal from these new varieties of canola has a protein content similar to that of soybean meal.

Previous research at the University of Illinois demonstrated that diets containing at least 30% high protein canola meal (CM-HP) or conventional canola meal (CM-CV) could be fed to nursery pigs without reducing growth performance. It has not yet been determined how much soybean meal can be replaced by conventional or high protein canola meal in diets for growing-finishing pigs without affecting growth performance or carcass characteristics. Therefore, an experiment was performed to determine the optimum inclusion rate of high-protein and conventional meal in diets fed to growing and finishing pigs.

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Webinar: FDA’s New Rules for Use of Antibiotics in Food Animals

On Dec. 11, 2013, the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) announced important steps to ensure the judicious use of antibiotics in food animals as one approach to addressing antimicrobial resistance in human medicine.

In an effort to clarify what this ruling means to livestock producers and other industry professionals, members of the Department of Animal Sciences at the University of Illinois offered a webinar on January 28, 2014 to address the new rules.

The discussion covered what the new steps mean to the livestock industry, what they don't mean, and how producers and others should respond. The webinar was presented by professor emeritus James Pettigrew, Extension swine veterinarian Larry Firkins, and professor Hans Stein.

(More information, including the archived webinar)

Podcast: Effecto del tamaño de partícula del maiz en el rendimiento de cerdos

(Listen or download)

Press release: Study provides nutritional value for co-products from the human food industry for use in pig feed

URBANA – Co-products from the human food industry offer a lower-cost alternative to cereal grains in diets fed to pigs. Research at the University of Illinois is helping to determine the nutritional value of these ingredients so that producers can make informed choices about incorporating them into swine diets, said Hans H. Stein, a U of I animal science researcher.

Researchers led by Stein conducted two experiments using corn and corn co-products. In the first experiment, they measured the concentrations of digestible and metabolizable energy in distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), hominy feed, bakery meal, corn gluten meal, corn gluten feed, and corn germ meal. In the second experiment, they determined the standardized total tract digestibility of phosphorus in pigs fed diets containing these ingredients without or with the addition of microbial phytase.

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New publications from the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Laboratory

Cervantes-Pahm, S., B. K. Knapp, B. G. Kim, Y. Liu, C. M. Parsons, G. C. Fahey, and H. H. Stein. 2013. Comparison of two different in vivo models and an in vitro model for caloric determination of four novel fiber ingredients. J. Agric. Food Chem. 61:12374-12379.

González-Vega, J. C., and H. H. Stein. 2014. Calcium digestibility and metabolism in pigs (Invited review). Asian-Austr. J. Anim. Sci. 27: 1-9.

Baker, K. M., Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Nutritional value of soybean meal produced from high protein, low oligosaccharide, or conventional varieties of soybeans and fed to weanling pigs. Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 188:64-73.

Petersen, G. I., Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Coefficient of standardized ileal digestibility of amino acids in corn, soybean meal, corn gluten meal, high-protein distillers dried grains, and field peas fed to weanling pigs (Short communication). Anim. Feed Sci. Technol. 188:145-149.