It has been widely recognised that wheat chemical composition and nutritive value can vary as a result of genotypic differences, but there is a lack of information on wheat grown in Northern Ireland. Furthermore, there have been conflicting reports regarding the effect of endosperm hardness, the 1B/1R translocation and enzyme addition on the nutritive value of wheat for growing pigs. The effects of wheat variety, endosperm hardness, the presence of the 1B/1R translocation and enzyme addition were examined in four experiments involving a total of 326 Large White Landrace pigs. Performance traits of individually housed pigs were measured in Experiments 1, 3 and 4 and apparent in vivo digestibility coefficients were determined at the total tract and ileal level from post-valve-T-caecum cannulated pigs in Experiment 2. The results obtained for the analysis of the chemical composition of the eight varieties were mainly within reported limits. However, there was a wide range of crude protein concentrations (97.8 to 138.7g/kg dry matter) suggesting varietal differences. There was no effect of endosperm hardness or the 1B/1R translocation on chemical composition. In contrast to other research reports, there were no significant differences in pig performance as a result of either variety, endosperm hardness or the presence of the 1B/1R translocation. However, there were significant variety effects on apparent total-tract digestibility coefficients. Enzyme supplementation had no significant effect on pig performance, despite the fact that the basal diet did not have a high nutrient specification.The authors acknowledge the Department of Agriculture and Rural Development for Northern Ireland (DARD) and Danisco Animal Nutrition for the financial support which enabled this research to be undertaken. Appreciation is expressed to the staff from the Agri-Food and Biosciences Institute who assisted with this work
