Digestibility of brewers’ grains by swine

Abstract

The digestion experiment was made with two young pigs. The Cr2O3 ratio technique was used. The diet consisted of 4.4 kg wet brewers' grains and 6 kg skim-milk per day per animal. The components of the latter food were presumed to be completely digestible. For the components of the brewers' grains the following average digestibility percentages were obtained: organic matter 43.3; crude protein 58.9; N-free organic matter 38.9; membrane substances 7.8; valuable N-free substances 59.7. According to different food tables the digestibility of the crude protein of brewers' grains is in ruminants 68—73 %, and the corresponding figure for N-free organic matter 59—69. Comparison of the figures presented gives evidence of the inferiority of swine in making use of brewers’ grains.