Effect of feeding wheat millrun on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance in starter pigs

• 200 g wheat millrun/kg replaced 150 g soybean meal/kg and 50 g wheat/kg in diets for weaned pigs.
• Increasing inclusion of wheat millrun did not affect feed intake and growth over 21 days starting 2 weeks after weaning.
• Increasing inclusion of wheat millrun reduced dietary energy digestibility.

Wheat by-products could be an alternative feedstuff for sustainable pork production. The effects of substitution of soybean meal (SBM) and wheat with increasing inclusion of wheat millrun on diet nutrient digestibility and growth performance of young pigs were evaluated. In total, 160 weaned pigs were fed five pelleted wheat-based diets containing 0, 50, 100, 150 or 200 g wheat millrun/kg in substitution for up to 150 g SBM/kg and 50 g wheat/kg for 3 weeks (day 1–21) starting 2 weeks after weaning at 21 days of age. Diets were balanced for net energy (NE) using canola oil and for amino acids using crystalline amino acids to provide 10.1 MJ NE/kg and 1.05 g standardised ileal digestible (SID) lysine (Lys)/MJ NE. Increasing inclusion of wheat millrun to 200 g/kg linearly reduced (P < 0.001) diet apparent total tract digestibility coefficient (CATTD) of dry matter by 0.04 and CATTD of gross energy by 0.03, but did not affect CATTD of crude protein. Increasing dietary inclusion of wheat millrun linearly increased (P < 0.05) the calculated diet NE value by 0.07 MJ/kg indicating that the NE value of wheat millrun was underestimated. Increasing dietary inclusion of wheat millrun did not affect average daily feed intake (ADFI) and average daily gain (ADG) for each week or for the entire trial (day 1–21). Increasing dietary inclusion of wheat millrun linearly increased (P < 0.05) feed efficiency (G:F) by 0.12 for day 8–14 or by 0.04 for the entire trial. In conclusion, up to 200 g wheat millrun/kg can replace 150 g SBM/kg and 50 g wheat/kg in diets formulated to equal dietary NE value and SID Lys content and fed to nursery pigs starting 2 weeks after weaning without detrimental effects on growth performance.