17 Alternative feedstuff for pigs in China: Efficient utilization of sorghum as an alternative energy source fed to pigs.

Abstract

With corn price soaring up in recent years in China, many alternative energy sources have been paid attention to, such as barley, sorghum, DDGS, etc., in order to reduce diet cost and an overdependence on corn by swine producers. Of all the cereal grains, sorghum may be used as the sole grain to replace corn in diets fed to pigs without reducing the growth performance of weaned, growing or finishing pigs. It is necessary to accurately evaluate the nutritional values in different types of sorghum in order to formulate diets economically and effectively.1) The effective energy could decrease by more than 200 kcal/kg when the tannin content is increased by 1% in the sorghum grain.2) The effective energy contents in sorghum grain could be accurately predicted by chemical compositions or in vitro enzymatic energy values.3) Diets for weaned pigs should contain less than 20% U.S. sorghum during the first 2 wk, and no more than 40% during the subsequent 2 wk after weaning.4) Sorghum used as an alternative energy source for corn in diets fed to growing pigs decreases CP utilization by increasing manure N output, which might be partially offset by protease supplementation.5) Although domestic low tannin white sorghum has more potential to develop feeding value than high tannin red sorghum, it is necessary to further improve and optimize the feeding quality. Therefore, the potent anti-nutritive properties from tannin should not be ignored when sorghum is used as an energy source for pigs. Once favorably priced, low-tannin sorghum is considered to be a better feedstuff to substitute corn in diets fed to pigs. These results provide theoretical basis and data reference for the development and efficient utilization of sorghum grain.