Pigs to Pork  NUTRITION
AS-398 Dec. 1971
Grain Sorghum for Hogs
J. R. Foster and V. B. Mayrose, Animal Sciences Department
The threat of southern corn leaf blight	2. No vitamin A activity
has prompted swine producers in Indiana to	3. Approximately 5% less energy
consider alternative energy sources for
swine feed. Grain sorghum (sometimes re-	These factors should be considered when
ferred to as milo) has been used extensively formulating swine rations using grain sorghum, in swine rations in the southwest. In addition to being free from the dangers of blight,	Even though grain sorghum frequently
grain sorghum is more drought resistant	contains more protein than com, the two are
than corn.
FEEDING TRIAL RESULTS	Table 1. Nutrient Composition of Grain
Sorghum and Corn —^
Research designed to evaluate grain	
sorghum in swine rations has been conduct-	Grain
ed in Illinois, Arkansas, Nebraska, Kansas, Nutrients	sorghum Corn
Texas and a few other states. Most of the 
percent percent
studies reported thus far show that com provides a slight advantage over grain sorghums Dry matter	89.0	89.0
in terms of rate of gain and feed efficiency.	Ash	1.7	1.3
Although some trials indicate equal perfor-	Crude fiber	2.4	2.2
mance between hogs fed grain sorghum and	Fat	2.6	3.8
those fed corn, an average of all research	Nitrogen-free-extract	72.3	72.7
reported shows approximately a 5% reduc-	Crude protein	10.0	9.0
tion in rate of gain and feed efficiency when Calcium	0 03	0 02
grain sorghum is fed.	Phosphorus	0.2S	Ch28
NUTRIENT ANALYSIS	Amino acids
Cystine	0.18	0.16
The chemical analysis of grain sorghum,	Lysine	0.25	0.25
as shown in Table 1, indicates a very simi-	Methionine	0.16	0.16
lar nutrient composition to com. Grain	Threonine	0.27	0.36
sorghum differs, however, in the following	Tryptophan	0.09	0.09
ways:	
a/ Considerable variation in nutrient
1. More variability in crude protein	composition exists between samples. The
content but, on	the	average, slightly more	figures here	are	averages	from a number of
protein.	sources.