SEARCH
Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Interaction Between Pig Density and Dietary Energy
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 29, 2015
Dietary net energy and stocking density independently affect performance, feed utilization and profits in the finisher barn. The objective of this experiment was to assess the interactions of stocking density and dietary energy, and determine how these interactions affect net income. When stocking density was increased, the performance of finishing pigs was reduced; however the income over feed cost (IOFC) was maximized when pigs were stocked at higher densities. Furthermore, finishing pigs responded to increasing dietary energy by decreasing feed intake and improving growth rate, feed efficiency, caloric intake, caloric efficiency, and IOFC. However, the dietary energy which maximized performance and economics did not vary with stocking density. Thus producers should optimize both of these factors separately when determining optimal production.