Nutritive value of wet distillers' solubles for pigs

Authors

• Jarmo Valaja Department of Animal Science, P.O. Box 28, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland
• Matti Näsi Department of Animal Science, P.O. Box 28, FIN-00014 University of Helsinki, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72606

Abstract

Digestibility and nitrogen (N) metabolism were studied to evaluate the nutritive value of wet barley distillers’ solubles (DSB) from an integrated starch-ethanol process for pigs. Eight castrated male pigs (live weight 72-103 kg) were used in a 8 x 3 cyclic change-over design, where the diets were arranged factorially 2x2. The corresponding factors were the protein source (DSB or soya bean meal (SBM)) and the protein level (131 or 162 g crude protein (CP)/kg dry matter (DM)). Faeces and urine were collected in total. The four diets comprised barley, barley starch, minerals and vitamins with either DSB or SBM as the main source of protein. The digestibility of CP(p<0.001) and organic matter (p<0.01) was higher in SBM than in DSB-based diets, but the digestibility of ash (p<0.01) and ether extract (p<0.001) was higher in DSB than in SBM-based diets. The digestibility coefficients of the nutrients calculated by regression were generally higher in SBM than in DSB. The digestibility of CP was 0.865 in DSB and 0.902 in SBM, The pigs on SBM-based diets retained more (p<0.001) and excreted less N in urine (p<0.001) than the pigs on DSB-based diets. The nitrogen balance parameters were closely related to lysine supplies, which were higher in SBM-based diets.