07 March 2025

Adapt your diets for lower protein cereals

Kieran Keane explores the drop in crude protein levels in 2024 cereal harvests. What does this mean for pig producers? With wheat, barley, and maize all testing lower than expected, it’s time to reassess formulations to avoid performance losses.

It’s been apparent for some time that the 2024 harvest of cereals seem to be lower in crude protein than most recent harvests. The reasons for this may be attributed to higher yields diluting the available nitrogen, or perhaps less nitrogen being supplied during the season. But what are the effects of these lower protein ingredients and what can pig producers do to counteract them? Commercial mills will have adapted their formulas to allow for changes in real time but it’s possible some home millers may be using older formulas. Here are some results from the Moorepark Feed Nutrition Lab on different cereals.

Barley

The average crude protein across all 2023 harvested barley samples analysed in the lab was 9.85% and to date the 2024 samples average Crude Protein (CP) is 9.25%. The average dry matter is lower too; average for 2023 harvested samples was 87.7% and the average 2024 sample was 86.9%. It isn’t just Irish and UK barley that is low in CP this year, we are seeing a decline in protein in samples from all sources. We are however seeing some very low results for CP in barley samples. The average across the lowest half of 2024 harvest sample results is only 8.8% CP. Figures like this don’t appear on most nutritional evaluation tables for ingredients. 10% was the CP value for barley which was used in Moorepark as standard for formulation until recently.

Wheat

Wheat samples have shown a similar decline in protein levels. Average CP in a 2023 sample was 10.48%. However the 2024 samples have averaged only 9.8% to date. Dry matter is also slightly lower in the 2024 samples. Again the lower half of the CP values for 2024 average just 9.4% CP, which is a long way shy of the 10.5% formulation value we used to use as standard in Moorepark.

Maize

We have analysed samples of maize from Europe and North and South America and it can be harder to predict with the varied sources which samples belong to which growing season. However the maize samples we have analysed seem to consistently have a CP average of 7.27%. Formulation value we used to use in Moorepark was 8.15% CP.

How these results affect formulations

So with wheat, barley and maize making up approx. 80% of a lot of pig diets and each is potentially about 1% below our old formulation values for crude protein, it stands to reason that the resultant diet could be approx. 0.8% down on dietary CP. So if your recipes/formulations have not changed in the last 6 months it could be that you are now supplying up to 1% less crude protein to pigs than you were last year.

Finisher Diets

For example the standard Moorepark Finisher diet which was formulated to 16% CP (on old values) and has an ingredient cost of €301/t. If you were to use the 2024 average CP values for wheat and barley the dietary crude protein would come out at 15.5%. So if the formulation isn’t changed to reflect the reduced protein levels in those ingredients then the resultant diet is down 0.5% in crude protein. However if we use some of the poorer results from above and the 8.8% CP barley and the 9.4% CP wheat was in the silos the resultant diet comes out at only 15.1% CP.

In both scenarios above there is also going to be less lysine and other amino acids in these diets than when formulated. Having lower dietary crude protein and amino acids will have adverse effect on finisher growth and FCE. At the moment the price difference between grains and soya is the smallest it has been for a number of years. So readjusting soya levels in the diet and returning to a dietary CP of 16% from 15.1% would cost an extra €3.41/t. Feeding the 15.1% CP diet would have affected performance in the finishers so reformulating and paying a bit extra for feed is likely the cheaper option in the long run.

Lactating Diets

The lactating diet in Moorepark discussed in Peadar’s article above was formulated to 17% CP (on old values). When the CP values for the average 2024 harvested grains are applied the dietary CP comes out at 16.4%. If the lower CP values are applied then the dietary CP drops to 16.1%. Again there would be less lysine and other amino acids present in the diet. Undersupply of protein and lysine to lactating sows can lead to lower milk yield and excessive weight loss in the farrowing room. Interestingly in this scenario when reformulated with the actual CP values given for these cereals the diet didn’t become more expensive as some soya oil was removed as extra soya was included.

Conclusion

If your recipes/formulations have not changed in the last 6 months make sure you have a close look at them with your nutritionist. Undersupply of protein will lead to lower FCE in growing pigs and lower milk yield in lactating sows. The cost of reformulating to add back more protein will be far smaller than the potential loss in production costs.