Feeding DDGS and Laying Hens to Demonstrate Economically Viable Reductions in Ammonia Emissions

The purpose of this award is for the grantee to demonstrate to egg producers nationwide that the feeding of the ethanol by-product, dried distillers grains or DDGS, as part of a properly balanced diet, can result in dramatic reductions in ammonia emissions while maintaining production performance for egg laying hens.UEP will administer this project under the direction of Mr. Chad Gregory, with management support from collaborative scientists at three land-grant universities, particularly Professor Gates at UK. Scientists from ISU and PSU will work with egg producers in Iowa and Pennsylvania. These producers will adopt specific diet modification strategies involving DDGS, certain FDA-approved feed supplements, enzymes, and probiotics. At these same farm locations, and under essentially identical production conditions, hens in the paired houses will be fed a standard “control” diet. Ammonia emissions, manure nutrient contents, hen production performance, and production costs for both the treated and control facilities will be measured, analyzed and compared. The economics of these diet manipulation strategies will be thoroughly evaluated and an economic analytical tool will be developed to help transfer this economic performance information to other producers. These findings will be featured prominently in an upcoming National Poultry Waste Management Symposium. Most importantly, UEP will disseminate these findings through its regular newsletters, reaching 90% or more of the egg laying industry and through 16 regional meetings held over the course of two years (two per region) where these results will be presented.