The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the efficacy of a LPA barley mutant (M) cultivar M955 compared with the corresponding normal barley (NB) cultivar to increase the utilization of Fe, Zn, and Cu in barley-SBM diets fed to growing swine. The response criteria were pig growth performance, hematocrit volume, metacarpal bone characteristics, and the apparent absorption, retention, and excretion of Zn and Cu. It was found that replacing NB with the LPA barley cultivar M955 in the current experiment did not increase the utilization of Fe, Zn, and Cu in practical diets for
young swine, apparently because of the small increase in the availability of the endogenous trace minerals in the diets containing M955 compared with NB. However, for the TM treatments, there were linear increases in growth performance, metacarpal bone ash and strength, hematocrit volume, and Zn and Cu absorption, retention, and excretion (mg/d) with increasing concentrations of Fe, Zn, and Cu provided as FeSO4, ZnSO4, and CuSO4, with the greatest treatment concentration providing 100% of the NRC (1998) requirement for Fe and Zn, and 160% of the requirement for Cu. These results indicate that the inorganic trace mineral supplementation should not be less than the NRC (1998) requirements for young swine.

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