Bob Woerman Woerman's Animal Nutrition Consulting LLC

Publish Date: March 25, 2010

Preparing high quality swine diets is a complex process that involves several important components. Those components include ingredient procurement, diet formulation, feed manufacturing and delivery of the final diet. Careful attention must be given to the quality of the ingredients used to manufacture swine diets. The quality of the final diet also needs to be checked to ensure it is consistent with that of the original formula specifications or product description. Otherwise, optimal pig performance and economic outcomes may not be achieved. To ensure this consistency, a quality assurance program that involves product specification sheets, proper feed and ingredient sampling, analytical procedures and interpretation of laboratory results should be implemented.

Publish Date: March 25, 2010

In any given year, late plantings, cool growing seasons, early frost, and/or drought conditions occur in parts of the US, and this typically results in lower quality grains and soybeans. Weather-stressed grains and soybeans often have a lighter bushel weight than normal crops, and they can also contain mycotoxins or molds that produce mycotoxins. While these factors decrease the feeding value of thee crops to pigs, depending on the price discount or dock at the elevator, weather-stressed crops at a low enough price to make them viable alternative feedstuff for swine. The purpose of this factsheet is to help determine if, when, and how weather-stressed feedstuffs should be used in swine diets.

Publish Date: March 25, 2010

Feed costs comprise approximately 65-70% of the cost of pork production. While most U.S. producers think of strictly corn and soybean meal (SBM) when feeding pigs, they need to realize that pigs require amino acids, energy, vitamins and minerals, and not any particular feedstuff for normal growth. In most regions of the U.S., a corn–SBM combination is usually the least expensive ingredient combination that meets the pig’s nutrient requirements. However, in times of higher corn and SBM prices or in regions of the U.S. that are removed from the Corn Belt, producers need to look at alternative feedstuffs in order to keep diet costs down.