Trace Mineral Supplementation of Diets for Growing-Finishing Swine

Until the past few years, most diets for growing-finishing swine contained .5% salt. However, recent research has confirmed that a level of .2 to .25% added salt will meet the dietary sodium and chlorine requirements of the growing-finishing pig fed a grain-soybean meal diet. Some producers rely on trace mineral salt to supply the needed trace minerals to the diet. A reduction in the amount of trace mineral salt added to the diet from .5 to .25% results in only half as much of each of the trace minerals supplemented to the diet. The study reported herein was designed to evaluate the performance of growing-finishing pigs fed salt containing different amounts of trace minerals at a level of .25% of the diet