Economic and environmental implications of incorporating distillers’ dried grains with solubles in feed rations of growing and finishing swine in Argentina

Abstract

The Argentinean swine industry has quickly expanded over the past decade, hence increasing the demand for swine feedstuffs. The growing supply of distillers’ dried grains with solubles (DDGS) from the emerging Argentinean corn-based ethanol industry is a potential feedstuff for swine producers. Using a multi-objective linear programming model, this study examined the economic and environmental concerns (i.e. cost and phosphorus content) associated with introducing DDGS in swine feed rations. Results suggest that including DDGS in swine diets concurrently minimized cost and phosphorus content. The results were extrapolated to the entire Argentinean swine industry and show that the inclusion of DDGS in swine rations could potentially save the Argentinean swine industry about 19.21 million US dollars annually and reduce phosphorus content by up to 5%. In addition, sensitivity analysis of DDGS price was conducted and the potential demand for DDGS from swine by growth category was derived.