Researchers at Kansas State University reported the results of two experiments that evaluated the effects of soybean hulls in diets with and without corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) on nursery pig growth performance. In the first factorial arranged experiment, 600 pigs weighing 6.7 kg were fed 0, 3, 6, 9, or 12% soybean hulls in corn-soybean meal diets without or with DDGS (15% from day 0 to 21, 30% from day 15 to 42). Pigs were blocked by initial pen weight, gender, and room location with ten pigs/pen and six replicates per treatment. Results showed that increasing soybean hulls in the diet to 12% of the feed formulation did not influence average daily gains (ADG) or average daily feed intake (ADFI), but adding DDGS reduced (P<0.04) ADG and ADFI, and tended to increase growth/feed (G:F).

In the second experiment, 304 barrows with an average body weight of 11.7 kg were fed diets arranged in a 2×4 factorial with 0, 5, 10, or 15% soybean hulls in either corn soybean meal or corn-soybean meal-DDGS (20%) diets. Again, pigs were balanced by initial body weight and randomly allotted to treatments with nine replicate pens (four pigs/pen). Increasing soybean hulls tended to reduced G:F, but improved (linear, P<0.008) caloric efficiency on both a ME and NE basis.