Effects of increasing dietary wheat middlings on nursery pig growth performance

Date

2012-02-16

Authors

De Jong, J.A.
DeRouchey, Joel M.
Tokach, Michael D.
Goodband, Robert D.
Nelssen, Jim L.
Dritz, Steven S.

Journal Title

Journal ISSN

Volume Title

Publisher

Kansas State University. Agricultural Experiment Station and Cooperative Extension Service

Abstract

A total of 180 nursery pigs (PIC 327 × 1050, initially 25.2 lb BW) were used in a 21-d trial to evaluate the effects of increasing dietary wheat middlings on growth performance. Pens of pigs were balanced by initial BW and were randomly allotted to 1 of 5 dietary treatments with 6 replications per treatment. The 5 corn-soybean meal-based diets contained 0, 5, 10, 15 or 20% wheat middlings. Overall (d 0 to 21), pigs fed increasing wheat middlings had decreased ADG (linear, P < 0 .05) and ADFI (linear, P < 0 .005), but F/G was not affected by dietary wheat middlings. Despite the linear decrease in ADG and ADFI, the biggest reduction in performance was not observed until wheat middlings increased beyond 15% of the diet. This suggests that in some cases, the slight decrease in ADG with a low inclusion of wheat middlings (< 15%) to the diet might be economically justified, so its inclusion needs to be evaluated on an income over feed costs basis.

Description

Keywords

Swine, Nursery pigs, Wheat middlings

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