Depending on time of year and region Canadian pork producers have reported savings of 50 cents to five dollars per pig on feed by including dried distillers grains with solubles in rations however there have been problems reported with meat quality specifically backfat softness and belly quality when feeding high levels of corn DDGS.

Neil Campbell, a partner with Gowans Feed Consulting, suggests much of the meat quality concern has stemmed from experiences in the US.

Neil Campbell-Gowans Feed Consulting

In the US pigs are raised primarily on a corn-soy diet and animal fat or vegetable fat is added to those diets and those corn based diets are much higher in fat than what we typically feed here in western Canada.

Our diets contain wheat, barley, peas and other small grains and are much lower in fat.

Corn distillers are pretty high in fat.

They range from eight to 12 per cent depending on the source and are particularly high in unsaturated fats so in the US feeding 30 per cent corn distillers all the way through market or 40 per cent distillers for that matter can cause some fat softness particularly in the bellies and that can be an issue for packers.

Here in western Canada where we're feeding again these smaller grain diets with barley and wheat we're feeding a much lower fat content in the diet and we believe that the lower fat content allows us to feed higher levels of corn distillers grains without seeing that impact in fat quality and belly softness that they would see in the United States.

Mr Campbell says, in eastern Canada where more corn is fed, producers are encouraged to reduce inclusion of DDGS in the final phase of the grower diet to preserve fat hardness.

However, he says, withdrawal strategies are not necessary when feeding lower fat diets and are not being recommended in western Canada.