Energy Sources in Starter Diets for Early Weaned Pigs

The swine industry is largely dependent upon feed grains as major dietary ingredients because of the very limited ability or the pig to utilize roughages. The dependence upon feed grains puts the pig in direct competition with humans for available food supplies. Grains are an excellent source of carbohydrate but in general are a poor supplier or protein. Raising the level and quality or protein in corn and oats wou1d be of great economic and nutritional value. New uses of high protein ingredients, which were once used as supplementa1 protein for swine, are continually being implemented to help meet the demands of human hunger. Already, the swine industry has experienced the competition for supplemental protein needed to meet the protein requirements or the hog. One significant breakthrough occurred in 1963 when Purdue University scientists discovered mutant gene corns that had marked alterations in the amino acid content of corn endosperm protein. Preliminary investigations indicated that these mutant gene corns were superior to normal corn in nutritive value for nonruminant animals. Synthesis of essential amino acids could a1so allow reduced protein levels by supplying the limiting amino acids in the right proportion. Oats generally has a crude protein value of about 12%. Compared to the other cereal grains, it is relatively high in crude protein. However, due to the presence of the hulls, oats is usually too bulky to be suitable for making up a large share of the ration for growing pigs. Removing the hulls results in a grain lower in fiber and higher in energy and protein, a change which could produce a more complete feed meaning less supplemental protein and lower production costs for the producer. The purpose of the research reported herein was to further investigate the nutritive properties of opaque-2 and double mutant gene corns, hulled, rolled oats and ground oats in diets for young weanling swine. Three trials were conducted to study these ingredients as sources of protein, energy and lysine in starter diets. Average daily gain, feed consumption and feed efficiency were used as measures to evaluate the sources