Nutritional Value of Distillers Dried Grains and Solubles for Poultry

It is now well recognized by the feed industry that dramatically increasing quantities of distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) are entering the ingredient market. For those interested in the history of this ingredient, a substantial scientific literature exists in both refereed journals and proceedings of conferences, particularly the Distillers Feed Conference. In 1970, Dr. M. L. Scott presented a paper entitled “TwentyFive Years of Research on Distillers Feeds for Broilers” (1). Aside from Dr. Scott, many prominent poultry nutritionists of the day were active in studying the use of this ingredient, these including G. F. Combs, Sr. (2), T.D. Runnels (3), R. H. Harms (4), and L. S. Jensen (5, 6). Papers of the period reported on tests with laying hens in which the effects of DDGS were studied on egg production, egg size, interior egg quality and liver fat accumulation. Cromwell et al. (7) reported on the feeding characteristics of DDGS. Nevertheless, in recent decades DDGS has only rarely been a component of broiler and layer feeds, despite the dramatic growth of the poultry industry. The lack of interest in DDGS seems to stem partly from a relatively limited supply, competing use in ruminant feeds without having to dry the product, and concerns over an occasionally inconsistent composition. The DDGS available many decades ago was derived primarily from the beverage industry based on the fermentation of a variety of grains, in addition to commercial production of alcohol.