Kevin Herrick, Fernando Diaz-Royon and Paul Kononoff
Most livestock nutritionists recognize dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) as a source of fat and protein. As a result, researchers have devoted a significant amount of time and resources to better characterize the fat and amino acid components of DDGS.
However, we often overlook that a significant amount of DDGS is comprised of fiber. In fact, fat content (8 percent dry matter [DM]) is much less than the fiber component, while typical crude protein concentrations (31 percent DM) are similar to the concentration of the ash-free neutral detergent fiber (aNDFom) fraction (31 percent DM; Table 1).
A challenge with any fiber discussion is accurately defining the fiber terms being compared. Components such as acid detergent fiber (ADF), neutral detergent fiber (NDF), crude fiber, total dietary fiber and soluble dietary fiber arecommonly used, and each term reflects a different part of the fiber component.
Continue reading this article published in Progressive Dairyman.
