Effects of Distillers Dried Grains With Solubles and Lactose on Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs

combination of DDGS and phytase resulted in the greatest reduction of price per ton ($15) compared to the traditional diet without affecting animal performance. During the second and third phase feeding periods of the experiment (125 to 185 and 185 to 260 lb, respectively) there were no differences in ADG, ADFI, or G:F (P > 0.10). Numerical differences between treatments were small, which would indicate that phytase and DDGS inclusion in diets separately or together can reduce or eliminate the need of calcium phosphates during the last stages of production. There were no differences observed among the treatments during the three phases of the experiment or the growing-fi nishing period overall (90 to 260 lb) for the animal performance characteristics measured. The costs per ton of each dietary treatment indicates that the addition of DDGS and phytase separately or together can reduce feed cost based on August 27, 2008 prices. The greatest reduction in feed cost (up to $15/ ton) was observed when both DDGS and phytase were used together. It is important to note that DDGS inclusion in diets can also reduce the amount of other ingredients which also contribute to the reduction in feed cost. These results are in agreement with concurrent research conducted at other universities which have concluded that DDGS along with phytase inclusions in nursery diets can alleviate any need for supplementing diets with calcium-phosphates. The results of this experiment indicate that proper formulation of diets with phytase and DDGS can reduce or alleviate dependence on traditional phosphorus sources in swine grower-fi nisher diets. Conclusions Overall, animal performance did not differ when alternative methods of P supplementation were used in growing -fi nish pigs (90 to 260 lb). These results suggest that expensive sources of P can be omitted from diets in order to decrease feed costs without altering animal growth parameters. There was no interaction between lactose and DDGS, but lactose can be incorporated in nursery diet containing DDGS and maintain growth performance. 1 Summary A 4-week feeding experiment was conducted to evaluate effects of distill-ers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) and lactose on growth performance of nursery pigs. Ninety-six pigs (age, 23 + 2 days; initial body weight, 14.15 + 0.11 lb) were randomly allotted into each of 16 pens by gender, ancestry, and weight (6 pigs/pen; 4 pens/treatment). In phase 1 (weeks 1 and 2), pigs were fed 1 of the 4 …