Swine Extension

Congratulations to the following swine faculty and educators from the swine Extension team who have had their work published recently. Dong, S., Zhang, N., Wang, J. H., Cao, Y., Johnston, L. J. , Ma, Y. X. (2025). Effects of Medium- and Short-Chain Fatty Acids on Growth Performance, Nutrient Digestibility, Gut Microbiota and Immune Function in Weaned Piglets . Animals , 15(1) Article 37, doi: 10.3390/ani15010037. Hsu, CH., Montenegro, M., Miclat-Sonaco, R., Torremorell, M. , & Perez, A. M. (2024). Validation of the effectiveness of pig farm repopulation protocol following African swine fever outbreaks in the Philippines. Frontiers in Veterinary Science , 11(Article 1468906). Doi: 10.3389/fvets.2024.1468906. Schwartz, M., Snow, C., Torremorell, M. , Rendahl, A., Pieters, M. (2025). Detection of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus type 2 in air emissions from grow-finish barns. V eterinary Record. Early Access Aricle, doi: 10.1002/vetr.5127.

The USDA 2022 Census of Agriculture was released earlier this year. The UMN Extension livestock team created infographics highlighting Minnesota-specific facts for the given species we work with. 

 Recently the U.S. Soybean Export Council released a publication on the benefits and applications of using soybean oil in swine and poultry diets. The publication titled, Manufacturing Quality Feeds with U.S. Crude Degummed Soybean Oil: Advantages, Benefits and Applications was written by Dr. Jerry Shurson, Professor of Animal Nutrition in the Department of Animal Science at the University of Minnesota. Dr. Shurson is world-renowned for his team’s research on assessing the nutritional value of feed fats and oils for swine and poultry, as well as the effects of lipid oxidation on animal health and performance. This new publication is available in both English and Spanish , so be sure to check them out.

By Jerry Shurson and Pedro Urriola, University of Minnesota, St. Paul Originally appeared in National Hog Farmer African swine fever continues to be a significant threat to U.S. pork production, as well as corn and soybean growers. The introduction of a foreign animal disease may cause the U.S. losses of about $8 billion for the pork industry on the first year of an outbreak (Hayes et al., 2011; Lusk, 2019). However, the economic impact of an ASF outbreak would extend beyond the pork industry because the prices and revenue from production of corn ($44 billion) and soybeans ($25 billion) would also significantly decrease as a consequence of decreased utilization of these ingredients in swine diets (Hayes et al, 2011). Most swine viruses tested in the Pacific and Atlantic transboundary models survived in soybean meal (Dee et al., 2018). In addition, porcine coronaviruses had the greatest survival in soybean meal compared to other feed ingredients (Trudeau et al., 2017).  Read the...

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 08, August 5, 2019 Swine diet formulation and feeding management are evolving into a new era of decision-making. Nutritionists are beginning to implement "precision nutrition" approaches to customize diet formulations and feeding programs designed for specific farm conditions to capture the greatest economic value in pork production. In addition, critical decisions are also being made on selecting and using alternatives to growth-promoting antibiotics and selecting feed ingredient sources based on their relative biosecurity risks of introducing foreign animal diseases.

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 07, July 1, 2019 Regulations that have led to restricting antibiotic use for growth promotion in livestock have caused swine nutritionists to consider various feed additives, functional ingredients and functional nutrients that can be used as alternatives to promote pig growth and health. Compared with other grain byproducts, corn dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) have relatively high concentrations of natural antioxidant compounds that may contribute to reducing oxidative stress. Furthermore, DDGS contains about 10% spent yeast, and yeast cell walls contain beta-glucans, mannanoligosaccharides (MOS) and nucleotides that have been shown to provide beneficial effects for swine health and growth performance.

By Dr. Jerry Shurson and Amanda Palowski, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 06, June 3, 2019 Although the majority of swine diets containing dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) in the midwestern U.S. are fed in meal form, when these diets must be pelleted, the dietary inclusion rate of DDGS is often restricted due to concerns of reduced pellet quality and pellet mill throughput. As a result, the ability of feed manufacturers and pork producers to capture greater economic value from using higher dietary inclusion rates may be diminished because of constraints imposed on DDGS to meet desired pellet quality and production efficiencies in commercial feed mills. Pelleting is the most common thermal processing method used in manufacturing swine feeds (Miller, 2012) and provides the advantages of improved feed conversion (due to reduced feed wastage) and improved digestibility of energy and nutrients...

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science, © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 05, May 6, 2019 Compared to other feed ingredients, corn dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) have some unique physical and chemical characteristics that affect storage and handling characteristics. The use of DDGS in animal feeds has created challenges for handling and unloading from railcars, containers and bulk vessels, especially during humid summer months, plus challenges with transport using conventional feeder screws as well as flowability and discharge from feed silos and storage bins at commercial feed mills. Proper feed ingredient storage is essential for preserving nutritional value and preventing spoilage. The original condition of a feed ingredient is the most important factor affecting quality preservation during storage and is influenced by moisture content, relative humidity and temperature (Mills, 1989). Moisture within a ...

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 04, April 1, 2019 Less research has been conducted to evaluate the effects of feeding diets containing corn dried distillers grains plus solubles (DDGS) to gestating and lactating sows than for nursery and growing/finishing pigs. However, there is substantial evidence indicating that adding up to 30% DDGS to lactating sow diets and up to 50% DDGS to gestation diets can result in acceptable sow and litter performance. The first study to evaluate the use of DDGS in gestating sow diets was conducted 40 years ago by Thong et al. (1978) using DDGS as a replacement for soybean meal. A total of 64 gilts were fed diets containing 0%, 17.7% or 44.2% DDGS during gestation. There were no differences in the number of pigs born per litter and average pig birth weight among dietary treatments. These results provided the first evidence suggesting that DDGS could r...

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science  © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 03, March 4, 2019 A variety of commercial feeder designs are used in commercial swine operations that have various advantages and disadvantages. Bergstrom et al. (2012) evaluated using conventional dry feeders compared with wet-dry feeders and various feeder adjustment openings on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing pigs. Results from this study showed that pigs fed using the wet-dry feeders had greater average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI), hot carcass weight and carcass backfat thickness than pigs fed using dry feeders. They also observed that the wet-dry feeder was more sensitive to differences in feeder adjustments compared with conventional dry feeders. In a subsequent study, Bergstrom et al. (2014) compared growth performance and carcass characteristics of growing/finishing pigs fed diets containi...

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 02, February 11, 2019 Phosphorus is the third most expensive component of swine diets, and unlike all other grains and grain co-products, dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) contain a high concentration of total and digestible phosphorus. Therefore, when adding DDGS to swine diets formulated on a digestible phosphorus basis, significant reductions in inorganic supplementation and diet cost can be achieved. In addition, many ethanol plants add phytase during the ethanol and DDGS production process, which further improves the phosphorus digestibility of DDGS but also contributes to variation in digestible phosphorus content among DDGS sources (Rodrigues-Reis et al., 2018).

By Dr. Jerry Shurson, University of Minnesota Department of Animal Science and Dr. Brian Kerr, U.S. Department of Agriculture-Agricultural Research Service’s National Laboratory for Agriculture & the Environment in Ames, Iowa © 2019 Feedstuffs. Reprinted with permission from Vol. 91, No. 01, January 14, 2019 More than 90% of fuel ethanol plants in the U.S. are separating corn oil from thin stillage to produce distillers corn oil (DCO). In 2017, the U.S. ethanol industry produced about 3.6 billion lb. of DCO, with about half of this total being used to produce biodiesel and the other half marketed as a high-quality energy source for use in poultry and swine diets. The abundant supply of DCO, its high metabolizable energy (ME) content and relatively low price compared with other feed fats and oils make it an attractive energy source to use in commercial swine diets. The market price of DCO is closely related to the price of yellow grease in the U.S. market for fats and oils, ...