Three Alternative Ingredients of Economic Importance for Dominican Livestock

1. The Economy of the Dominican Republic is the 7th economy in Latin America, being also the largest and most important in all of Central America and the Caribbean, occupying first place and obtaining regional leadership.

2. The annual production of balanced feed is approximately 2.4 million tons3.

 Current monthly production:

3. -22.5 million chicken.

4. -330 million consumer eggs.

5. -62,500 pigs finished.

6. -772,000 Tilapia

7. -67 million liters of milk.

Sorghum has a reputation for containing high tannin values. This penalizes their image, since the presence of tannins in animal feed constitutes an important anti-nutritive factor in monogastric animals. In fact, it has been shown that the presence of 1% tannins reduces the energy value of sorghum by 7% in pigs and by 11% in poultry.

According to the USDA, the United States is the largest producer of Bicolor Sorghum, 8071 million tons, followed by Nigeria and Sudan.

Tannins (condensed) are polyphenols of plant origin. They have the ability to precipitate proteins, forming complexes resistant to enzymes that plants use as a means of chemical defense against pathogenic microbes and herbivores.

For 30 years, American and European sorghum has been devoid of tannins, Tannin content < 0.3»

Sorghum protein Kafirina, zeina is that of corn.

Dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS) is the dry residue left after the starch fraction of corn (corn DDGS) is fermented with yeast to produce ethanol. After fermentation, the ethanol is removed by distillation and the remaining fermentation residues are dried.

Dakota Gold DDGS is a cold-processed distillers grain food additive that provides digestible fiber, amino acids, vitamins and minerals. It is commonly used in feed for pigs, poultry and dairy products.

Distillers corn oil is derived from the production of corn-based ethanol. It is a high-quality fat that is used as an ingredient in animal feed. This product is intended for animal consumption only (Dr William Dozier, Auburn University).

1-Dominican livestock producers should explore other ingredients different from traditional diets: Corn-Soybeam meal-Soybean oil.

2- It is important to take advantage of the low seasonal prices of: Sorghum, DDGs and DDGs oil.

3- When we lower costs we improve the company's profitability and offer cheaper animal products to consumers.