Swine Morsels

Swine Morsels XVI

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By Rob Fischer, Ph.D.
Source: Sioux Nation Ag Center
Published: Mar. 12, 2009

              As a nutritionist I am continually looking for new technology and opportunities to improve the profitability of our customers involved in swine industry. In December I had the opportunity to travel to Denmark to observe first-hand Fermented Liquid Feeding. I will be honest with you that prior to going to Denmark I had my reservations about fermented liquid feeding and was unsure about the ability to bring this technology to the US. After seeing the equipment involved in the fermented liquid feeding system, pigs consuming the fermented liquid feed, and reviewing production numbers from farms using this technology, US producers need to keep an open mind to this new technology and look for opportunities to increase profitability in a very challenging swine industry. While there is an increase in equipment cost initially with installing the liquid feeding system, the increase in production performance and reduced feed cost attained with using fermented liquid feeding will result in a return on investment within two years. Below are some highlights about fermented liquid feed and some reasons why fermented liquid feeding can reduce cost of production and decrease the incidence of enteric health challenges.

 
What is fermented liquid feeding? Inoculated fermented liquid feed is produced by the controlled fermentation of the energy supplying portion of the diet (the cereals or starch based co-products). The temperature of the liquid cereal must be controlled (between 50 & 70°F) and it must be inoculated with specially selected lactic acid bacteria that can produce a high concentration of lactic acid in 24h. A high concentration of lactic acid is needed so that when the fermented liquid cereal is mixed with other ingredients to produce a diet, the final diet fed to the pigs still contains 150 mMol lactic acid. The fermented co-products are food co-products developed from the food industry that are inoculated with a special lactic acid producing bacteria prior to entering the liquid co-product holding tank. The active lactic acid bacteria added to the co-product quickly take control by eliminating the growth of other yeasts and bacteria resulting in a “preserved” product that has a very long shelf life. Industries involved in potato, vegetable, milk and fish processing, starch and sugar manufacture, baking, brewing and bio-ethanol production all generate co-products that can be valuable and cost-saving inclusions in liquid diets. Many of these materials are acidified at the source of production to prevent spoilage. Then, the inclusion of these acidified components in liquid feeds has been shown to reduce significantly the incidence of Salmonella and other enteropathogens in pigs.

Potential ways that fermented liquid feeding can decrease the cost of production.
 
  1. Ability to use low cost co-products from the food industry. As stated above there are numerous opportunities to purchase co-products from the food industry if we had a feeding system to handle them in an efficient manner. There are many sources of liquid co-products in our area that would make great feed ingredients in a liquid diet and could be purchased at a very reasonable price.
  2. Reduction of approximately 15 to 20% crude protein/amino acids in the ration, thus lower inclusion of expensive protein products.
  3. Increase phosphorus release from feed ingredients, thus decreasing the cost of adding phytase and monocalcium phosphate to the diet.
  4. Increase in intestinal health. The fermentation process generates significant quantities of lactic acid, which eliminates enteropathogens like Salmonella, E. coli and Lawsonia from the diet and can reduce the incidence of health problems caused by these organisms in the pig. Thus fermented liquid feed can be seen as at least a partial replacement for antibiotic growth promoters.
 
Taken together all of the items listed above would have a dramatic impact on feed costs and health status of the pig ultimately reducing cost per pound of gain.