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:
Feeding Hulled or Hull-less Barley Differing in Fermentable Starch and Fibre to Weaned Pigs
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by student on August 3, 2018
Authors: Lifang Wang, Hao Zhang, Eduardo Beltranena, and Ruurd T. Zijlstral
Reference: Canadian Hog Journal Summer 2018
Summary: Hull and Hull-less barley can be utilized as cereal energy sources in swine, however the chemical composition varies between samples which results in variance within the nutritional value. This variance has the potential to affect the growth of the pigs. Fermentable carbohydrates have the ability to increase hindgut fermentation by microbes through shifting the digestion from the small intestine to the large intestine.
Through this study it was determined that in order to accurately predict growth performance when formulating diets for hulled and hull-less barley it is necessary to consider net energy and digestible amino acids.
When pigs were fed highly fermentable hull-less barley a decreased feed intake was observed. These pigs also have poor feces consistency. These results aided in the conclusion that including highly fermentable hull-less barley should be avoided in weaned pigs diets.
When considering hulled barley, this study determined that hulled barley could be an excelled source of cereal energy when consider weaned pigs. This is due to their feed intake and growth performance.