FEED FOR THOUGHT ▶▶▶
Pelleting the diet W
ith the current energy prices, feed companies are looking for solutions to reduce production costs. Moving from pellet to mash diets may be thought of as saving the costs of pelleting. However, this is not a good idea, as other feed quality properties
will be compromised. Below is an explanation of what should be considered before moving to mash diets.
Feed stability and hygiene: Pelleting reduces feed segregation or de-mixing of smaller particles such as minerals, vitamins and other additives. Moving to mash diets might increase the risk of animals being fed unbalanced diets as a consequence of feed segregation in a shared feeder. Pelleting also reduces bacterial load in the mash.
Nutritional efficiency: It is generally recognised that fineness of grinding af- fects nutrient digestibility. As has been earlier documented, an increase of the average particle size by 0.1 mm decreased energy digestibility by around 0.6% and nitrogen digestibility by around 0.8% in growing pigs. The effect of particle size is different for different nutrients, with the biggest effect on crude fat digestibility. The negative effect of coarse grinding of completed diets on nutrient digestibili- ty can be explained by different factors. Grinding disrupts complex cell wall structures, which makes nutrients available for digestion. Fine grinding increas- es the contact surface of the feed, which improves accessibility of digestive enzymes. The next step after grinding is pelleting. The effects of pelleting a completed swine diet on nutrient digestibility and energy utilisation will also depend on many factors such as diet composition or grinding of the ingredients. Diets rich in fibre by-products and oil seeds will benefit more from the pelleting process due to the further reduction on particle size, making fat and fibre more available for digestion. Based on the available information, as a rule of thumb we can say that pelleting a European swine diet will increase energy utilisation by around 2%.
Performance parameters: Pelleting reduces feed intake as a conse- quence of a reduction in feed wastage, while improved daily growth is observed. Thus, feed efficiency is improved in pigs fed pelleted diets.
Taking this into account it can be suggested in the current scenario of high feedstuffs prices and low meat prices to still pellet swine diets to increase nutrient utilisation, maintain performance and reduce the im- pact to the environment. In the coming years we will need more re- search on how to optimise the processing part inside the feed mills to reduce the costs associated with processing of diets.
Francesc Molist
holds a PhD in animal nutrition from the Universitat Autònoma de Barcelona in Spain. He has been working for Schothorst Feed Research in the Neth- erlands since 2011, most recently as manager re- search & development.
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▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 38, No. 3, 2022
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