{"id":20500,"date":"2024-04-10T05:00:51","date_gmt":"2024-04-10T10:00:51","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.insta-pro.com\/?p=20500"},"modified":"2024-03-29T10:24:50","modified_gmt":"2024-03-29T15:24:50","slug":"hi-gel-corn-particle-size-for-broilers","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/instapro.spinuhost.com\/en\/blog\/nutritionandtechnologies\/hi-gel-corn-particle-size-for-broilers\/","title":{"rendered":"Hi-Gel\u2122 Corn – Particle Size for Broilers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Hi-Gel\u2122 corn, the product of high-shear dry extrusion from Insta-Pro, is an improved version of the commodity ingredient. Corn starch in this ingredient is thoroughly gelatinized (90% or more), making it easier to be digested and absorbed by animals.\u00a0 This was proven more than useful through a study<\/a> we conducted with Iowa State University a few years ago. In this study, broilers fed Hi-Gel\u2122 corn exhibited increased feed intake during the starter phase, and the birds achieved market weight faster than when fed ground corn, the commodity version. When a higher-quality version of soybean meal was added to the diet, in this case, ExPress\u00ae soy meal<\/a>, the birds grew even faster and achieved market weight about 4 days quicker.<\/p>\n

We are constantly trying to refine and understand our processes, using animal testing as the gold standard for measuring nutritional quality. Recently, we completed some testing to look at the effect of particle size of corn, both raw and Hi-Gel\u2122, on the amount of available energy and digestible amino acids in corn. We worked with the lab of Dr. Carl Parsons at the University of Illinois and his cecectomized rooster assay.\u00a0 Particle size is important for many reasons, including those related to how the dry extruder will operate, and because it affects animal performance as well.\u00a0 We looked at 3 particle sizes (300, 500, and 700 microns) and two states of corn (raw or dry extruded using Insta-Pro equipment). Some of the main findings are shown below (note that the various particle sizes are averaged within each bar because particle size didn\u2019t make any difference).<\/p>\n

\"\" \"\"<\/p>\n

So, according to this new data, Hi-Gel\u2122 corn does not contain more metabolizable energy (i.e., for productive purposes, or ME) or digestible amino acids than raw, ground corn. It\u2019s true that when expressed on an as-is basis, there are about 167 more available kcal of useful energy, but that can all be explained by differences in moisture.\u00a0 Previous blogs<\/a> have indicated that Hi-Gel\u2122 corn likely contained greater ME than ground corn in broilers, but this was using published data for ground corn \u2013 not animal data.<\/p>\n

There was very little variation in the metabolizable energy with different particle sizes.\u00a0 As an example, with raw corn that had been ground to 300 microns, the ME values from 4 groups of birds were 3886, 3856, 3921, and 3920 \u2013 essentially no variation.\u00a0 When that same particle size was extruded, the values were 3848, 3966, 4043, and 3825 \u2013 again, very low variation.\u00a0 The particle size of the corn used in this study did not affect any of the nutrient parameters measured.<\/p>\n

So, the data from this recent work helps to point a few things out:<\/p>\n