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Better Pork
February 2017
NUTRITION
diet may be a direct result of feed
wastage being minimized or the im-
provement in digestibility of these
diets.
Not unexpectedly, pigs fed the
pelleted diets throughout signifi-
cantly out-performed all the other
pigs in terms of feed efficiency.
There were no significant dif-
ferences in carcass characteristics,
regardless of treatment.
Pig removals from the study were
determined by an on-site manager
when the pigs were deemed to be
at risk due to weight loss, health or
animal welfare issues that necessi-
tated that pigs be separated from the
rest of the population.
Feeding pellets for the full 118
days of the trial significantly in-
creased the number of pigs removed
per pen compared with all other
treatments. When pelleted diets
were fed for the entire trial, or for
only the last 48 days, the ulcer index
significantly increased relative to
pigs fed meal diets for the last 48
days. All other treatments fell some-
where in between. Based on these
results, it is evident that continuous-
ly feeding a pelleted diet increased
the ulceration index, leading to an
increased number of pigs requiring
removal from the study.
Previous research at the Univer-
sity of Guelph was able to demon-
strate that feeding a coarsely-ground
meal diet for as little as a three-week
period improved stomach morphol-
ogy after feeding a finely-ground
diet. In the current study, although
both the meal and pelleted diets
champkk/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
Rotating between a meal diet and a pelleted diet during the finishing period can decrease the incidence
of stomach ulcers, while still realizing some of the feed efficiency benefits of pelleting.
songqiuju/iStock/Getty Images Plus photo
Feeding a coarsely-ground meal diet for as little as a three-week period
improved stomach morphology after feeding a finely-ground diet.