Milo
Milo or grain sorghum is grown for human consumption, livestock feeding, and ethanol production in many countries around the world. Milo is an excellent energy source and can replace all or part of the corn in swine diets (Stein et al., 2016).
The concentration of starch and fiber in milo is very similar to corn, but milo contains slightly less oil than corn which results in an energy content of 98-99% relative to that of corn (Goodband et al., 2016). Because of this, pigs fed milo-based diets generally have similar growth rate but slightly poorer feed efficiency as those fed corn-based diets. A strategy that can improve feed efficiency and relative feeding value of milo to corn is fine grinding (Paulk et al., 2015).
The digestibility of lysine is slightly lower in milo than corn (0.15 vs. 0.19%, respectively). However, the concentration of some other essential amino acids, particularly threonine, tryptophan, and valine, is greater in milo compared to corn (NRC, 2012). Currently, the use of crystalline amino acid-fortified diets allows to balance for amino acids while lowering the amount of soybean meal in milo-based diets. While generally not a concern in modern varieties of milo, the presence of tannins in milo must be observed as it negatively affects digestibility of amino acids in concentrations greater than 1% (Stein et al., 2016).
Milo contains more saturated fatty acids and less polyunsaturated fatty acids than corn. This characteristic may improve pork fat quality and decrease carcass iodine value and might allow for greater inclusion of co-products high in polyunsaturated fatty acids, such as distillers dried grains with solubles, compared to corn-based diets.