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 “This corn has a higher oil concentration – almost 9% – and more
protein, a little bit more fiber, and a little bit more
phosphorus. We know the concentrations in the grain, but not how
well pigs can digest it. If they don't digest as well, it may
not be an advantage to have more of some of these components,”
says Hans H. Stein, professor in the Department of Animal
Sciences and the Division of Nutritional Sciences at Illinois
and co-author on a study in Animal Feed Science and Technology.
But, when compared with conventional corn, nutrients and energy
in high-oil corn were more digestible across multiple
dimensions.
“Amino acid digestibility was greater, and that was true for all
the indispensable amino acids except one. So not only do we have
more of these amino acids in high-oil corn, but we also have a
greater digestibility. Essentially, if you multiply the
concentration by the digestibility, then you have an even
greater difference between the two grains.
“There's also about 8% more energy in the high-oil corn compared
with the conventional corn. So in the U.S., that translates to
around 300 kilocalories extra energy per kilogram of grain,”
Stein says.
To arrive at these conclusions, Stein and co-authors Charmaine
Espinosa and Natalia Fanelli formulated diets with high-oil corn
from Byron Seeds LLC or conventional corn as the only source of
crude protein and amino acids. The diets were formulated with or
without microbial phytase, a product that helps make phosphorus
more bio-available in pig diets.
“Not only is there more phosphorus in high-oil corn than
conventional corn, it turns out the digestibility of phosphorus
was also about 10% greater, regardless of whether or not we
added phytase in the diet,” Stein adds.
Packing more amino acids, energy, fiber, and phosphorus into a
single component of pig diets could save producers money by
reducing the need to supplement these dietary components from
soybean meal and feed phosphates.
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Stein adds the same is likely true for poultry diets,
as poultry often respond to these dietary components in similar ways
as pigs.
The company says its product offers the same yield as conventional
corn, but Stein’s research did not address this claim. Regardless,
Stein notes the product may be difficult to keep separate from
conventional grain in the corn supply chain. It may, therefore, be
difficult to capture the added value of high-oil corn if producers
sell their grain to an elevator. However, for producers who grow
their own corn and feed it to pigs on site, Stein says it should be
easy to realize the economic benefits of high-oil corn.
“If you have a producer growing his own grain, putting it in the bin
and using it, it clearly would be an advantage for him to have the
high-oil form, everything else being equal.”
The article, “Digestibility of amino acids and concentration of
metabolizable energy are greater in high-oil corn than in
conventional corn when fed to growing pigs,” is published in Animal
Feed Science and Technology [DOI: 10.1016/j.anifeedsci.2021.115040].
The Department of Animal Sciences is in the College of Agricultural,
Consumer and Environmental Sciences at the University of Illinois at
Urbana Champaign.
[Source: Hans Stein,
News writer: Lauren Quinn]
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