This study was designed to evaluate the effect of reducing the protein level of late finishing pigs by 4-5% on growth performance, carcass characteristics and N excretion. The results indicate that dietary protein levels and N excretion can be reduced significantly without affecting pig performance when diets are supplemented with lysine, threonine, tryptophan and methionine. From a production standpoint, this means that a producer needs 38.4 % less land to spread his manure on if the nutrient management plan is based on N. However, amino acid levels need to be based on gram/day intake to avoid problems occurring with differences in feed intake causing an amino acid deficiency.