Starter Diets for Weaned Pigs

The swine producer who ope rates a farrow-to-finish operation and the feeder pig producer who sells his pigs at 40 or 15 lb. are both interested in get ting weaned pigs off to a quick start. Lack of palatability and low feed consumption are two problems associated with young pigs. Additions of ingredients to make the feed more acceptable to the pig add cost to an already expensive diet. Another problem often encountered is edema disease. High protein diets have often been listed as a predisposing cause of this disease. Work at this station (A. S. Series 70-33) has shown little benefit from complex starter diets over simple corn-soybean meal diets. In the simple starter diet , the high level of protein is the main contribution to the cost of the diet. It seems logical that the addition of limiting amino acids which constitute protein may allow for a reduction in the level of protein required for maximum pig performance. The trials reported herein were designed to test this hypothesis and to observe if differences in edema disease occurred on diets differing in protein content