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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.
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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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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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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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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Standardized ileal digestible lysine requirements for 7- to 11-kg weanling pigs fed a corn-soybean meal-based diet
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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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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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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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Weaning is one of the most stressful times in a pig’s life. Not only does it mean big changes in social, thermal and physical environment, but it also means a huge change in diet form and composition. As a result, piglets often suffer from poor nutrient intakes and performance during this initial period following weaning, until they are able to make the necessary adjustments. To reduce stress during this period, many different techniques, including the development of special pre and...
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Standardized ileal digestible lysine requirements for 7- to 11-kg weanling pigs fed a corn-soybean meal-based diet
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The current situation on the world feed market shows increasing feed prices. Not only milk by-products are steady increasing in price. Corn prices are rising too. Raw material prices will affect more and more the profitability of animal husbandry. In future attention must be concentrated on...
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If sows are heat-stressed their daily feed intake decreases to decrease heat production. The reduced feed intake can result in increased tissue loss from the sow, lower piglet weaning weights, and possibly higher mortality rates (Spencer et al., 2003). Early weaning and use of milk replacer may alleviate these effects (Ratliff et al., 2004), and milk replacer may also decrease piglet weight variation at weaning (Wolter et al., 2002). Spencer et al. (2003) researched the effects of...
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New generation E. Coli phytases, the latest in thermoprotection technology, enzyme solutions to optimise both piglet and grower/finisher performance and the use of enzymes in antibiotic growth promoter free nutrition were just some of the recent advances in enzyme technology reported by Dr Gary Partridge at the Pig Focus Asia conference, Bangkok, Thailand. Presenting a paper entitled "Profitable use of new enzymes", Dr Gary Partridge, Technical Services Director for...
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Distillers dried grains and bread or cookie waste products can be used for feed, nutritionist says. If soybean and corn-based feeds get too expensive, livestock producers can always turn to leftovers. Hans Stein, a University of Illinois Extension swine nutritionist who speaked at the Illinois Pork Expo at the Peoria Civic Center, said the leftovers he's talking about may be available at different locations around the state. Stein...
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