Effect of fiber source on the performance of weaned pigs from 4 up to 10 weeks of age

Abstract

A study on the effect of feeding 2 levels of wheat bran and lucerne (Medicago sativa)
on the performance of weaning pigs from 4 up to 10 weeks of age was carried out. Five diets were formulated based on 65.95% maize + 30% toasted soybean meal + 4% vitamin mix – 0.5% L-lysine- HC1. 10.75 and 21.50% wheat bran, and 8.63% and 17.26 lucerne meal were substituted into diets I;II; III and IV, to provide 1 and 2% additional dietary crude fiber. 95 weaned piglets were divided into 5 treatments groups with 2 replicates. Average daily feed intake (kg), weight gain (kg) and feed efficiency (kg pig/kg feed) of each diet group are respectively: 0.773;0.400 ;0.576 (basal diet);0.776;0.409 ;0.562 (diet I); 0.713; 0.393 ;0.571(diet II); 0,743;0.366 ;0.552 (diet III) and 0.738;0.355 ;0.523 (diet IV). Statistical analysis shows, there is no significantly difference (p>0.05) between the diet groups in all variable studied during the entire experiment. The conclusion is that the capability of the piglets to utilize fiber from wheat bran (up to 5.21%) and lucerne meal ( up to 7.42%) were not different after 6 weeks of feeding trial. It is recommended that: 1). Providing weaned pigs with a single-setting value diet may not be adequate for 4 and 10 weeks of age; 2). The use of high levels of
fiber but not higher than 7.5% CF could be a useful and economical tool in pig production.