Standards updated for wheat, swine

Kansas State University researchers and representatives of Kansas Wheat have recently published updated findings on the value of feeding wheat to pigs. What they’ve found is good news for swine producers and wheat growers. “Our data collected from 2014 to 2020 suggests that wheat’s mean energy content is 99 percent and 98 percent of corn for digestible energy and metabolizable energy, respectively” said Joel DeRouchey, a swine specialist for Kansas State University Research and Extension. Bottom line is wheat can be used at a similar rate as corn in those areas where wheat is available, without a major decrease in the diet energy density. “The use of wheat co-products for the milling industry is a common practice in feeding livestock,” DeRouchey said. “For wheat, there are many different classifications of co-products, such as wheat middlings, wheat millrun, wheat shorts and wheat red dog.” Kansas State University formed a partnership with Kansas Wheat to update what is known abou