Feeding a Low Nutrient Excretion Diet to Swine

Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of feeding a corn- and soybean meal-based diet (control) or a low nutrient excretion (LNE) diet, formulated with reduced dietary crude protein and additional synthetic amino acids, low phytic acid corn, and phytase, on pig growth performance during the grower (BW=32 to 77 kg) and finisher (BW=78 to 126 kg) periods and on carcass and bone characteristics at slaughter. Pigs were blocked by sex and body weight and randomly allotted to a control or LNE diet. Individual BW and pen feed disappearance were recorded weekly in the nursery period and every 2 weeks in the grower-finisher period. Pigs were scanned ultrasonically at day 34 of the nursery period and week 8 and 16 of the grower-finisher period to determine back fat depths and LM area. Ten pigs per treatment of each sex were slaughtered to determine carcass characteristics. Overall growth performance was not different during each experiment. However, nursery G:F (Exp. 1), grower ADG (Exp. 1 and 2), and grower G:F (Exp. 2) were reduced (P<0.05) when the LNE diets were fed. Diet had no effect on 10th-rib carcass data in either experiment. Metatarsal bone ash percentage was reduced (P<0.05) when the LNE diets were consumed in both experiments. Feeding LNE diets resulted in the maintenance of overall growth performance, bone variables, and carcass characteristics. The researchers concluded that further refinements are still required in the nursery and grower phases of pig production to optimize LNE diet use by the swine industry.

Hinson, R.B. , and co-workers. 2009. Effect of feeding reduced crude protein and phosphorus diets on weaning-finishing pig growth performance, carcass characteristics, and bone characteristics. J. Animal Sci. 87(4): 1502-1517.