Feed efficiency: Measuring, Genetic Trends, and Current

State of the Industry

Pedro E. Urriola, DVM PhDDepartment of Animal Sciences

University of Minnesota

Feed efficiency

• Unit of output divided by unit of input

• How to express this efficiency?

Feed Animal

Input Output What it measures

Mass, kg of feed Mass, kg live weight Efficiency of growth

Mass, kg of feed Mass, kg of carcass Efficiency of pork

Energy, kcal of NE Mass, kg of carcass Nutritional efficiency

Feed efficiency

“Feed efficiency is a good thing to measure, but terrible driver of decision making” quoting Steve Pollmann

Different ways of expressing and looking at efficiency

0.320

0.325

0.330

0.335

0.340

0.345

0.350

0.355

CSB WM DDGS WM+DDGS

Effi

cien

cy

Diets

Gain:feed HCW:feed Linear (Gain:feed) Linear (HCW:feed)

Wu et al. (2016)

GENETIC TRENDS AND INDUSTRY DATA

Feed efficiency: Measuring, Genetic Trends, and Current State of the Industry

Comparative trends in quarterly reports

Item Q2 – 2015 Q2 – 2016 % ChangeAv. Start Weight 55.93 54.25 -3.00Mortality, % 4.30 4.37 1.67Av. Weight Out 279.1 278.9 -0.06Lb Feed/head 627.8 628.8 0.16ADG 1.89 1.90 0.42FCR 2.85 2.83 -0.53ADFI 5.39 5.38 -0.11%

Source: MetaFarms

Factors affecting feed efficiency

Environmental factors

Feed composition/processing

Pig

ANIMAL COMPONENTS

Feed efficiency: Measuring, Genetic Trends, and Current State of the Industry

What factors affect feed efficiency?

• Animal side:– Age– Sex– Genetics (Lean growth)– Health

Classes of Nutrients

• Carbohydrates• Lipids• Amino acids• Mineral• Vitamins• Water

Energy is not a nutrient

Boisen, 2007

Lean gain drives a large proportion of feed efficiency

FEED COMPONENTS

Feed efficiency: Measuring, Genetic Trends, and Current State of the Industry

Efficiency of using energy varies among nutrients

• Carbohydrates• Lipids• Amino acids• Mineral• Vitamins• Water

Energy is not a nutrient

Boisen, 2007

The greater energy in the diet the greater feed efficiency

y = -0.0011x + 5.103

y = -0.0013x + 5.6118

2.002.202.402.602.803.003.203.40

1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500 2700 2900

FCR

, F:G

Diet energy, NE kcal/kg DM

GF-live GF-carcassLinear (GF-live) Linear (GF-carcass)

Quiniou and Noblet (2012)

Rule of thumb 1% fat = 2% ↑ FCR

Pigs adjust their feed intake to energy intake, but it depends on age

y = -0.0004x + 3.1449

y = -0.001x + 5.7179

2.00

2.50

3.00

3.50

4.00

1500 1700 1900 2100 2300 2500 2700 2900

AD

FI, k

g

Diet energy, NE kcal/kg DM

ADFI-014 ADFI-28-54Linear (ADFI-014) Linear (ADFI-28-54)

Quiniou and Noblet (2012)

Grinding – particle size reduction

More smaller particles = greater surface area

Greater surface area

Grinding – particle size reduction

Greater surface area

Effect of diet grinding on productivity and health

Particle size, μ 1000 800 600 400ADG, kg/d 0.96 0.94 0.95 0.98ADFI, kg/d 3.25 3.21 3.26 3.16Feed to gain 3.39 3.41 3.43 3.23

Stomach health1 95 85 75 501Percent of normal stomachs or without macroscopic lesions

Survey on most common feed grinding size

0

5

10

15

20

25

30

35

> 800 700-800 600-700 500-600 400-500 < 400 Not sure

% o

f sur

vey

resp

onde

rs

% Responders

Flohr et al. (2012)

Feed production cost increases as particle size decreases

Wondra et al. (2012)

Maintenance has a high cost, and it affected by diets

Patience (2012)

Increase the proportion of GE in the diet that is digested

Item Corn DDGS WM SBH WS

GE, kcal/kg 3,933 4,710 3,901 4,210 4,036

NE, kcal/kg 2,672 2,343 2,113 989 239

GE:NE 0.68 0.50 0.54 0.23 0.06

Corn DDGSCorn-soybean

Alternative feed ingredients have high content of poorly digestible nutrients

0% 20% 40% 60% 80% 100%

DDGS

Corn

Water CP Fat Sugars Starch Fiber Other

Contribution of nutrients in DDGS towards predicted ME kcal/kg DM

Nutrient Min Mean Max SD CVDM 60.1 62.7 68.6 2.5 4.0CP 23.3 24.9 26.8 1.0 4.0Ether extract 3.2 6.0 9.1 1.7 28.3NDF 14.5 18.8 23.5 3.1 16.3ADF 5.5 7.9 10.4 1.8 22.9dHemi 8.4 10.9 13.9 1.8 16.9

Kerr et al. (2013), Huang (2016)

ME = 4.83(dCP) + 9.58(dEE) + 4.14 (ST) + 3.9(SU) + 4.4(dHemi) + 2.81(dADF) + 4.04 (dRes)

N = 12 source of corn DDGS

Dietary fiber decreases carcass yield

70.500

71.000

71.500

72.000

72.500

73.000

73.500

74.000

74.500

CSB WM DDGS WM+DDGS

Car

cass

yie

ld, %

Diets

Wu et al. (2016)

Withdraw feed in last phases to decrease impact

The digestibility of fiber can be predicted using laboratory procedures

y = 0.1643x + 2.8959R² = 0.819

0102030405060708090

0 100 200 300 400 500

ATTD

of T

DF,

%

Asymptotic gas production (A), mL/g DM

Wheat strawCorn DDGS

Soybean hulls

Huang (2016)

Dietary fiber modifies the type of secretory cells in the GIT of pigs

DDGS SBH

WS Control

Huang (2016)

Maintenance has a high cost, and it affected by diets

Patience (2012)

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

DDGS Corn

Water CP Fat SugarsStarch Fiber Other

Looking for more information?

Thanks!