Using mixer efficiency testing to evaluate feed segregation in feed lines

An experiment was conducted to evaluate potential diet segregation in feed lines by measuring coefficient of variation (CV) and mean salt concentration. The facility was a 1500-head gestation barn with nine feed lines, transected by a central feed line that conveyed feed from one of two bulk bins. Quantab® chloride titrators were used to analyze the chloride concentration (salt) from samples collected at pre-determined feed line locations at various distances from the bulk bins. Thirty samples were collected from three feed lines (row 1, 5, and 9), ten samples were collected from drop boxes close to the central feed line (location 1), ten samples were collected from a central location within the row (location 2), and ten samples were collected from the furthest end of the feed line (location 3). Samples of approximately 50 g were collected directly from the feed drop. The sample collection procedure was repeated four times. After the first two sample collections, a bin agitator was added to the bulk bin. There was a feed line × distance (within the feed line) × agitator interaction (P > 0.02) observed for CV. The addition of the bin agitator improved the CV in feed line 1 and 5, with no improvement observed in feed line 9. The CV observed before the addition of the agitator averaged 17.6, 18.6, and 14.3% for feed lines 1, 5, and 9, respectively, and the CV observed after the addition of the agitator averaged 13.6, 16, and 14% for feed line 1, 5, and 9 respectively. Within all feed lines (rows), distance CV was higher at locations 1 (17.3%) and 3 (17.6%), compared with CV at location 2 (15.6%) before the addition of the agitator, but was lower at locations 1 (14.3%) and 3 (13.0%), compared with CV at location 2 (15.6%) after the addition of the agitator. There was a mean-salt concentration effect (P<0.0001) observed for feed line. Feed lines 1 and 5 were similar in mean salt concentration, whereas feed line 9 consistently had the highest salt concentration. There was little to no feed segregation observed

Effects of increasing pantothenic acid on growth performance and carcass characteristics of finish pigs reared in a commercial environment

A total of 1080 pigs (PIC), initially 89.0 ± 5.1 lb were used to determine the effects of increasing pantothenic acid on growth performance and carcass characteristics of growfinish pigs. Pigs were blocked by weight and gender, and were randomly allotted to treatment. Pigs were fed, in meal form, the experimental corn-soybean meal, added-fat diets in four phases. Dietary treatments consisted of a control diet (no added pantothenic acid), or the control diet with 22.5, 45.0, or 90.0 ppm added pantothenic acid from d-calcium pantothenate. Dietary treatments were fed from d 0 to 98 (89.0 to 272.5 lb). The first three dietary phases contained 5% choice white grease, and all diets contained 0.15% L-lysine HCl, trace mineral premix, and a standard vitamin premix manufactured with no pantothenic acid. Vitamins in the vitamin premix were supplemented at 300% of NRC guidelines. Added pantothenic acid had no effect on ADG, ADFI, or F/G, regardless of rate, and no significant differences were observed in carcass traits, including hot-carcass weight, dressing percentage, fat-free-lean index (FFLI), average backfat, and loin depth. In our experiment, added pantothenic acid did not influence growth performance or carcass composition of pigs reared in a commercial environment

The effects of dietary glutamine, glycine, and sodium chloride concentration on nursery pig growth performance

Swine research, 2005 is known as Swine day, 2005We conducted a trial to evaluate the effects of feeding added salt (0.38% in addition to the 0.35% already added to the diet) and a 0.70% addition of a blend of 50% glutamine and 50% glycine to weanling pigs as a substitute for spray-dried animal plasma. A total of 216 pigs (initial BW 12.4 ± 1.9 lb and 21 ± 2 d of age) were used, with six pigs per pen and six pens per treatment. Pigs were randomly allotted to pens, blocked by weight, and assigned to one of the six dietary treatments. The six treatments were a negative control diet based on corn-soybean meal, a positive contol diet containing 5% spray-dried animal plasma, and diets with high concentrations of synthetic amino acids. Diets were arranged in a 2 × 2 factorial, with or without 0.7% of a 50:50 blend of glutamine and glycine and with or without added salt (0.38% more than the basal level of 0.35% in all diets). From d 0 to 7, ADG and ADFI increased (P<0.05) for the pigs fed the positive with all other treatments. Pigs fed the synthetic amino acid diets (glutamine:glycine and Na treatments) had improved (P<0.05) F/G, compared with that of pigs fed the negative and positive control diets. From d 7 to 14, pigs fed the positive control diet had increased ADG, compared with that of the pigs fed the negative control, but ADG did not differ from that of pigs on any of the four glutamine: glycine and Na treatment diets. Pigs fed the positive control diet had greater ADFI and improved F/G for d 7 to 14, compared with those of pigs in all other treatments. For the overall feeding period, (d 0 to 14), pigs fed the positive control diet had a numerical improvement in ADG, compared with that of pigs fed the synthetic amino acid diets. Pigs fed the positive control diet also had a greater (P<0.05) ADG and ADFI than those fed the negative control diet. The pigs fed the positive control diet consistently had greater ADFI than pigs in all other treatments. The increase in ADFI corresponds to the increase in ADG for the overall feeding period. The data suggest that adding spray-dried animal plasma to the diet improves ADFI and ADG, and it seems that synthetic amino acid diets containing added Na and a 0.70% dietary blend of 50:50 glutamine:glycine can not equal the response exhibited when spray-dried animal plasma is added to nursery pig diets. Pigs fed the synthetic amino acid diets did have greater growth performance than that of pigs fed the negative control diet. The addition of large amounts of salt or the glutamine:glycine blend to synthetic amino acid diets did not have any influence on pig performance in this experiment

The effects of electron beam and gamma ray irradiation levels in spray-dried animal plasma on nursery pig performance

A total of 385 pigs (initially 13.4 ± 2.2 lb and 21 ± 3 d of age) were used in a 28-d trial to determine the effects of electron beam and gamma ray irradiation dosage of spray-dried animal plasma (plasma) on nursery pig performance. Pigs were allotted to pen and blocked by weight by using an incomplete block design with either 7 or 8 replications per treatment. Dietary treatments were randomly allotted to pen within block. Ten dietary treatments were fed from d 0 to 14, including: a negative control diet with no added plasma, a positive control diet with added plasma, or one of 8 irradiated plasma diets. The 8 irradiated treatments included plasma irradiated with either electron beam or gamma radiation at increasing dosages of 2, 4, 6, or 10 kGy. All the pigs were fed a common diet from d 14 to 28. Irradiation of the plasma reduced the total bacterial and coliform counts at every dose, regardless of irradiation source. There were no interactions (P>0.05) between irradiation source and dosage for the entire trial. From d 0 to 14, pigs fed the diets containing plasma had increased (P<0.01) ADG and ADFI, compared with those of the pigs fed the negative control diet. Irradiating the plasma did not improve pig performance. There also were no differences (P>0.12) in growth performance between the pigs fed the plasma irradiated by electron beam or by gamma ray, which confirms previous research. But the majority of previous research has shown improvements in growth performance when pigs were fed diets with irradiated plasma, compared with performance of pigs fed diets containing regular plasma. Irradiation of plasma did not improve performance in this study

Effects of paylean (ractopamine⋅HCl) on finishing pig growth and variation

A total of 336 pigs were used in a 21-day trial to determine the effect of Paylean (9.0 g/ton Ractopamine·HCl) on finishing pig growth and variation. Pigs were allotted based on weight so that all pens had the same initial weight and degree of variation within the pen. Pigs fed Paylean had greater ADG and better feed efficiency than control-fed pigs (P<0.05). However, no differences in pen coefficient of variation were observed (P>0.70). The results suggest that adding Paylean to the diet improves finishing pig growth performance but does not affect weight variation within the pen

Evaluation of hemicell® on growth performance of late nursery pigs

A total of 276 pigs (initially 21.9 lb) was used to determine the effects of added Hemicell® on growth performance. Hemicell® is a patented fermentation product of Bacillus lentus. The active ingredient in the fermentation product is β-mannanase. However, other enzymes such as amylase, xylanase, cellulases, and α-galactosidase also are present. It is claimed that Hemicell® degrades β-mannan in feed, thus, removing its effects as an antinutritive factor in swine diets. Dietary treatments were arranged as a 2 x 3 factorial, with or without 0.05% Hemicell®, in diets with 3 levels of energy density (1,388, 1,488, 1,588 ME, kcal/lb). The 100 kcal increments were achieved by the addition of wheat bran or soy oil to a corn-soybean meal based diet. The addition of Hemicell® to the diets, regardless of energy level, did not lead to an improvement in growth performance in these late nursery pigs. Increasing energy density of the diet, however, resulted in an improved ADG and F/G

Nursery pig performance in response to meal and pelleted diets fed with irradiated or non-irradiated spray-dried animal plasma

Swine research, 2005 is known as Swine day, 2005A 25-d trial was conducted to determine the effects of feeding meal and pelleted diets, with or without irradiated spray-dried animal plasma (SDAP; AP 920), on the growth performance in nursery pigs. A total of 192 pigs (initially 13.2 ± 1.9 lb and 21 ± 3 d of age) were used, with 6 pigs per pen and 6 pens per treatment. Pigs were randomly allotted in a 2 × 2 factorial to pens, blocked by weight, and randomly allotted to one of four dietary treatments. The main effects were diet form, meal or pellet, and either irradiated SDAP or nonirradiated SDAP. The experimental treatments consisted of a single diet that was fed in either meal or pelleted form, with or without irradiation of SDAP for Phase 1 (d 0 to 11), and a common diet for Phase 2 (d 11 to 25). Pig fed pelleted diets from d 0 to 3 had a greater ADG, ADFI, and improved F/G (P<0.03) than did pigs fed meal diets. Irradiation of SDAP had no effect on performance from d 0 to 3; for d 3 to 11, however, there was a diet form × SDAP irradiation interaction (P < 0.01), and for d 0 to 11 there was interaction for ADG and F/G (P<0.07). Pigs fed irradiated SDAP in meal form had similar growth performance to those fed pelleted treatments. For producers that manufacture their own Phase 1 diet in meal form, use of irradiated SDAP can result in performance equal to that of nursery pigs fed a pelleted diet

Evaluation of different soy protein concentrate sources on growth performance of weanling pigs

Three experiments were conducted using 486 weanling pigs (216 in Experiment 1; 210 in Experiment 2; 60 in Experiment 3) to determine the effects of different soy protein concentrate (SPC) sources on growth performance. Soy protein concentrate source 1 is dried with a torus disk following the concentration of soy proteins. This drying procedure will generate some degree of heat and possibly mechanical forces somewhat similar to extrusion processing (Soycomil P®, ADM). Soy protein concentrate source 2 is dried by a different process, and then it is moist extruded (Profine E, Central Soya). Therefore, the objective of our study was to determine the relative feeding value of the different SPC sources compared with a complex diet containing milk and other specialty proteins (no soy protein), or a diet containing 40% soybean meal. In Experiment 1, each SPC source (28.6%) replaced all the soybean meal (SBM) in the control diet on a lysine basis. Pigs fed the diet containing 40% SBM had similar performance to pigs fed the milk-protein based diet from d 0 to 14. Pigs fed either SPC source had lower ADG and ADFI compared to pigs fed either the diet containing 40% SBM or the milkprotein based diet. Pigs fed the diet containing 40% SBM and SPC from source 2 had better F/G than pigs fed the milk-protein based diet or SPC from source 1. In Experiment 2, either all or half of the soybean meal was replaced by the 28.6 or 14.3% SPC from source 1 and 2. From d 0 to 14 and d 0 to 28, an SPC source by level interaction was observed for ADG (P<0.01) and ADFI (P<0.07). Replacing soybean meal with SPC from source 1 did not influence pig performance. However, replacing soybean meal with SPC from source 2 resulted in a quadratic (P<0.05) improvement in ADG with performance being improved for the diet containing 14.3% SPC, but no benefit to replacing all the soybean meal with SPC. Replacing soybean meal with SPC from either source influenced feed efficiency in a quadratic (P<0.01) manner with feed efficiency being optimal for pigs consuming the diet with half the soybean meal replaced by SPC. Because replacing all of the soybean meal with SPC reduced ADFI in Experiments 1 and 2, we hypothesized that pigs may not prefer the taste of a diet with a high inclusion rate of SPC (28.6%). To test this theory, a 7-day preference test was conducted to determine feed intake of weanling pigs provided the option of consuming diets containing either 40% soybean meal or 28.6% SPC (from source 2). Average daily feed intake was 0.41 and 0.01 lb for the 40% soybean meal and 28.6% soy protein concentrate diets, respectively (P<0.0001). The poor intake of the SPC diet may indicate a palatability problem when high levels of SPC are included in the diet. Our results suggest replacing a portion of the soybean meal in the diet with SPC from source 2 improves ADG and feed efficiency; however, high levels (28.6%) of SPC should not be included in the diet

Influence of L-carnitine on litter characteristics from gilts harvested at day 40, 55, and 70 of gestation

Swine research, 2005 is known as Swine day, 2005A total of 59 gilts were used to determine the effects of supplemental L-carnitine on reproductive performance. Experimental treatments were arranged in a 2 × 3 factorial with main effects of L-carnitine (0 or 50 ppm) and day of gestation (40, 55, or 70). All gilts received a constant feed allowance of 3.86 lb/day and a top-dress containing either 0 or 88 mg of L-carnitine, starting on the first day of breeding and continuing until the day of harvest. Total litter size, total litter weight, and crown-to-rump length of fetuses were not different (P>0.10) between treatments at any gestation length. By d 70 of gestation, average fetus weight was heavier (P = 0.06) for fetuses from gilts fed L-carnitine, compared with fetuses from gilts fed the control diet. In addition, at d 70, fetal insulin-like growth factor- II (IGF-II) concentrations were lower (P = 0.09) for fetuses from gilts fed L-carnitine than for fetuses from gilts fed the control diet. Feeding L-carnitine may have decreased fetal IGF-II, therefore increasing cell proliferation and delaying cell differentiation. These results show that providing supplemental Lcarnitine to gestating gilts has beneficial effects on average fetal weight, possibly observed because of its ability to reduce fetal IGF-II concentrations