Effects of Dakota Gold and Conventional Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles on Wean to Finish Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics of Pigs Fed Diets Provided As Pellets or in a Meal Form

Experiment objectives were to determine effects of conventional distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS; ADM Decatur, IL) with 9.5% acid hydrolyzed ether extract (AEE) or Dakota Gold DDGS (POET Nutrition, Sioux Falls, SD) with 6.8% AEE. A common phase 1 diet without DDGS was fed to 160 pigs for 7 d post-weaning and pigs were then allotted to a 2 × 2 factorial with 2 sources of DDGS (conventional and Dakota Gold) and 2 diet forms (pellets and meal) with 10 pens per treatment; 4 pigs per pen. Pigs were fed phase 2 diets (15% DDGS) for 14 d and phase 3 diets (30% DDGS) for 22 d. Both diets had 3.5% added fat. Growing, early finishing, and late finishing diets contained 30% DDGS and 1% added fat. Within phase, diets were similar in digestible AA. Daily feed allotments were recorded and pig weights were recorded at the beginning of each phase and at the conclusion of the experiment. On the last day, one pig per pen was harvested and carcass characteristics determined. No interactions between diet form and source of DDGS were observed. For the 2 nursery phases, feeding meal diets increased (P < 0.001) ADFI and decreased (P < 0.05) G:F, but no impact of source of DDGS was observed (Table 1). For growing-finishing pigs, meal diets resulted in reduced (P < 0.001) G:F compared with pigs fed pelleted diets, but pigs fed diets containing Dakota Gold or conventional DDGS were not different, which may be due to the relatively small difference in fat between the 2 sources. 10^th rib-back fat was greater (P = 0.018) for pigs fed pelleted diets (1.48 cm) compared with pigs fed meal diets (1.21 cm). In conclusion, from 7 d post-weaning to market, no differences in growth performance or carcass characteristics between pigs fed diets containing Dakota Gold DDGS or conventional DDGS were observed, but pelleted diets resulted in greater G:F and backfat thickness than meal diets.

Table 1. Growth performance of pigs

	Dakota Gold			Conventional					P-value
Item	Meal	Pellet		Meal	Pellet		SEM		DDGS	Diet form
Nursery
ADG. kg	0.54	0.53		0.55	0.53		0.01		0.771	0.131
ADFI, kg	0.87	0.82		0.89	0.82		0.02		0.279	< 0.001
G:F	0.63	0.65		0.62	0.64		0.01		0.547	0.030
Growing-finishing
ADG, kg	0.95	0.95		0.95	0.98		0.02		0.223	0.315
ADFI, kg	2.56	2.44		2.59	2.54		0.05		0.167	0.067
G:F	0.37	0.39		0.37	0.39		0.01		0.526	< 0.001