Leland McKinney Kansas State University

Publish Date: April 17, 2012

Should I Purchase or Make My Own Feed?

Publish Date: March 25, 2010

All cereal grains fed to swine need to be processed to reduce the particle size by cracking, grinding, rolling, extruding, expanding, or other method before being mixed with other ingredients and fed as a complete diet. Processing improves the utilization of grain nutrients primarily through improved digestibility. Cereal grains with hard seed coats (grain sorghum, barley, and triticale) have the greatest improvements in digestibility due to processing, but even processing corn has economic benefits and is routinely done for swine [1,2]. Pelleting is a cost-effective technology that can improve feed efficiency, decrease diet segregation, increase bulk density, reduce dustiness, improve feed handling characteristics and reduce issues with feed bridging. However, other feed processing technologies may have limited value in swine diets. Proper feed mixing and diet sequencing is also important to maintain pig performance and minimize concerns about potential antibiotic residues.