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Swine nutrition
Pigs require a number of essential nutrients to meet their needs for maintenance, growth, reproduction, lactation, and other functions. However, factors such as genetic variation, environment, availability of nutrients in feedstuffs, disease levels, and other stressors may increase the needed level of some nutrients for optimal performance and reproduction.
Swine require six general classes of nutrients: water, carbohydrates, fats, protein (amino acids), minerals, and vitamins. Energy, although not a specific nutrient, is an important nutritional component and is primarily derived from the oxidation of carbohydrates and fats. In addition, amino acids (from protein) that exceed the animal’s requirements for maintenance and tissue protein synthesis provide energy when their carbon skeletons are oxidized. Antibiotics, chemotherapeutic agents, microbial supplements (prebiotics and probiotics), enzymes, and other feed additives are often added to swine diets to increase the rate and efficiency of gain, to improve digestibility, and for other purposes, but they are not considered nutrients.
Pigs require a more concentrated diet and should be fed a less-fibrous feed than cattle, sheep, or horses. As they grow, their nutritional requirements change and the diet should meet their needs in various phases of growth and stages of production.
A relatively cheap ethanol byproduct mixed with an old nutritional standby might help pork producers cut feed costs.
Gary A. Apgar, an animal scientist at Southern Illinois University Carbondale, has been testing a blend of distillers' grains - the fat, minerals, vitamins and fiber remaining after corn's starch becomes fuel - and soybeans, a traditional protein source for swine. The combination turns out to be every bit as nutritious as soybean meal and, because grains cost less than...
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Feed costs represent 65%-75% of the variable costs of swine production. As a result, feed costs play a major role in determining the profitability of a swine enterprise. While corn and soybean meal are the industry standards for supplying energy and protein, there are many suitable alternatives that meet nutritional requirements while reducing the cost of the ration.
Price relationships vary greatly depending on seasonal variability, global and local markets. Pork producers must be...
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Digestibility of amino acids in hydrolyzed feather meal, flash dried poultry protein, poultry meal, and meat and bone meal fed to broiler chickens and pigs
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Ever since segregated early weaning (SEW) arrived on the North American swine scene some 10 years ago, researchers and producers alike have been trying to figure out the best way to feed these early-weaned pigs. Weaning pigs at 14-17 days of age, and sometimes younger, became popular from the perspective of disease control. However, post-weaning management of these SEW pigs has evolved and changed over the years as the industry has struggled to understand the challenges associated with the...
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Oats are not a major feed grain for swine diets, but they can be used effectively with some limitations. Oats are highly palatable to all classes and ages of swine, and are higher in protein and lysine than corn ( see Table 1 ).
Lysine content is important because swine, like most simple-stomached (non-ruminant) animals, do not require protein per se , but instead require specific levels of certain compounds that make up protein. These compounds are called amino acids....
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With feed equalling 60% to 75% of the cost of producing a pig it is important to get the most out of every feed dollar. Particle size is the term that refers to the average diameter of individual particles of feed or simply the feed's fineness of grind. Since, grain represents the primary energy source in most on-farm mixed diets, producers should be concerned with not only the nutritional quality of the grain but also with how it is processed. It is well documented that reducing...
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Growing concern about antibiotic growth promoters in animal nutrition has created efforts to use different plant compounds as possible natural alternatives. Phytogenic feed additives (phytogenics) are an extremely heterogeneous group...
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Current market review and perspective of Florfenicol, Tilmicocin, vitamins and aminoacids
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Due to their strong antimicrobial effect, acidifiers assist in improving feed and water hygiene standards. BIOMIN GmbH provides Biotronic® acidifier line, a family of products, combined from selected blends of organic acids. The latest know-how technology enables BIOMIN GmbH to create the highly effective acidifier products and to assure their continual functionality through feed and water into animals’ gastro-intestinal tract. The effects of Biotronic® products...
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NEXT Enhance® 150 is a standardised combination of thymol and cinnamaldehyde, an active ingredient of cinnamon extract. This combination acts to optimise gut flora equilibrium in the piglet and sow, leading to better feed efficiency and growth for the animal. Continuing to understand the mechanisms behind the consistent benefits in animal trials, Carotenoid Technologies SA (CaroTech®) has worked exclusively with the Zootechnical Department at the University of Ljubljana in Slovenia.,...
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Comparison of live yeast and zinc on the occurrence of pathogenic E. coli in weaned piglets
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Zero-tannin faba beans are a potential replacement of soybean meal in swine diets. The chemical characteristics, energy and amino acid (AA) digestibility, the content of DE and NE, and tannin content of zero-tannin faba beans were determined and indicate, together with the subsequent growth performance variables and carcass quality of grower-finisher pigs, that zero-tannin faba beans can replace soybean meal and result in similar performance in grower-finisher pigs. ...
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Over the last few years, the use of co-products from the ethanol industry has attracted a lot of attention and research efforts. Distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS), condensed distillers solubles (CDS), gluten feed, distillers dried grains (DDG) are all co-products of the ethanol industry that are seeing increased use in swine rations both in prepared feeds and in on-farm mixed diets. While the food for fuel debate continues, little attention has been paid to the co-products from...
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Successful formulation of low protein diets increases our flexibility in formulating practical diets, provides us with another tool to lower nitrogen output in the slurry and to reduce greenhouse gas emissions. This experiment was conducted to compare the performance of pigs fed regular protein versus low protein diets. An intermediate protein diet was also employed. Average daily gain, average daily feed intake and feed efficiency were unaffected by dietary treatment. Most carcass...
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The interest for weaned pigs of oat groats with high oil content was evaluated. The groats contained 95 g oil, 159 g crude protein and 3,724 kcal DE/kg DM. Weaned pigs fed for 4 weeks (7 to 22 kg) with diets containing graded levels (0, 15, 30, 45%) of oat groats, incorporated at the expense of wheat and soybean meal (85%-15%), presented average daily gains similar to those obtained with wheat. In conclusion, high-oil oat groats can replace wheat in diets for weaned pigs....
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Digestibility of amino acids in hydrolyzed feather meal, flash dried poultry protein, poultry meal, and meat and bone meal fed to broiler chickens and pigs
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Particle size refers to the average diameter of individual particles of feed, or simply the feed’s “fineness of grind.” Cereal grains provide the primary energy source for swine diets; therefore, you must be concerned not only with the composition of the grain but also with how it is processed. Because feed costs represent about 80 percent of the cash cost of producing swine, wise feed use is critical for your economic profitability. If you mix feed on the farm, you may improve...
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Nitrogen and phosphorus are the nutrients that are potential environmental pollutants when excessive quantities are applied to soils (Jongbloed and Lenis, 1998). These nutrients are excreted as a consequence of normal metabolic processes, but dietary excesses lead to increased manure excretion. Exogenous phytase (P T) as a dietary additive is widely accepted as an effective strategy for reducing manure P excretion by pigs. There have been conflicting reports as to the efficacy of PT for...
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Feeding dried chicory root to organic piglets can have a beneficial effect on their growth in the period immediately after weaning according to results from the Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, University of Aarhus. Chicory root has many beneficial effects on pigs. It has been shown that the root minimizes boar taint and now it also turns out that dried chicory root has a positive effect on piglet growth right after weaning. This has been shown in a series of studies with chicory root...
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A pig's delight is three square meals each day, according to a Swedish study on Tuesday showing swine raised in conventional indoor pens are healthier and grow fatter when fed this way. The researchers were looking to see whether they could alter feeding times to improve the welfare of indoor pigs raised for commercial slaughter and potentially give farmers ways to better maintain their livestock. Pigs kept outdoors eat in a more "natural" way by rooting for food...
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Current market review and perspective of Florfenicol, Tilmicocin, vitamins and aminoacids
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The pigs readily accepted and consumed the experimental diets. As indicated in Table 1, pigs achieved high growth rates on both treatments and no differences (P>0.10) were observed between the two dietary treatments. There were no effects of dietary treatments on any of the carcass characteristics that were evaluated, including meat and fat color scores. This was consistent with visual and subjective evaluation of carcass quality and meat color. In conclusion, no negative effects were...
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A total of 54 sows (PIC Line 1050) and their litters were used in this study to determine the effects of varying durations of creep feeding on the rate of pigs consuming creep feed (eaters) and pre-weaning performance. Two groups of sows were blocked according to parity and date of farrowing and allotted to three experimental treatments using a randomized complete block design. Creep feeding was initiated at d 7, 14, and 18 from birth for a duration of 13, 6, and 2 d of creep feeding. A creep...
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Comparison of live yeast and zinc on the occurrence of pathogenic E. coli in weaned piglets
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In the past couple of years, livestock producers have been saddled with skyrocketing grain prices and an influx of dried distillers grain with solubles, a product that is unique to each ethanol plant. Hans Stein, University of Illinois extension swine specialist, hopes to take some of the guesswork out of feeding DDGS to hogs. He's created a DDGS calculator, which allows producers to input costs for the various portions of the feed ration. Producers can then see the cost comparison for...
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Triticale is a grain developed by crossing durum wheat with rye in order to combine the grain quality, productivity, and disease resistance of wheat with the vigor, hardiness, and high lysine content of rye. Triticale is higher in protein and essential amino acids than corn, with 50% higher lysine content (Table 1). Lysine content is important because swine, like most simple-stomached (nonruminant) animals, do not require protein per se, but instead require specific levels of certain...
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