Feeding weaned piglets and growing-finishing pigs with diets based on mainly home-grown organic feedstuffs

Abstract

In 2000, EU regulations for organic animal production set new guidelines for organic pig feeding requiring that this be based on mainly home-grown organic feedstuffs. Doubts were however raised whether these feeding regimes can maintain good growth performance and carcass quality of pigs. Three experiments were carried out to study different organic feeding regimes in weaned piglets and fattening pigs. In Experiment 1, we evaluated the use of peas and faba beans (0, 120, or 240 g kg -1 ) in diets for weaned piglets. Piglets fed pea diets performed as well as those fed the control diet, whereas the highest faba bean level resulted in reduced feed intake and growth performance. In Experiment 2, we studied the replacement (0, 33, or 67%) of rapeseed cake with blue lupins in fattening pig diets. The dietary lupin level had a quadratic effect on the weight gain of growing pigs, the best performance being observed at the 33% replacement level. However, dietary lupin level did not influence weight gain during the finishing period and total fattening. Back fat became softer with increasing dietary lupin levels. In Experiment 3, different protein supplements were compared in organic diets from weaning to slaughter. In two-phase feeding, the best performance was observed when whey protein was used as the protein supplement, followed by soya bean cake + whey protein and rapeseed cake + fish meal. The effects of a one-phase organic feeding regime with coldpressed rapeseed cake + whey protein did not differ from those of the two-phase organic feeding regimes. Fattening pigs fed organic diets required from two to seven days longer to reach slaughter weight than those fed conventional diets. Pigs fed organic diets had fatter carcasses, but the eating quality of organic pork did not differ from that of pork from pigs fed conventional diets. Feed costs and the circulation rate of pigs, weaners in particular, were greater and carcass prices lower in the organic feeding regimes than in the conventional ones.

Efficiency of lupine seed (Lupinus angustifolium and Lupinus luteus) in sow, piglet and fattener feeding

“…In the finisher period (60-107 kg) the control pigs grew faster. Similar results were obtained by Partanen et al (2006) when blue lupine replaced rapeseed pressed cake at a level of 33%. In the earlier experiment of Hanczakowska and Świątkiewicz (2014) the mean daily body weight gains of fatteners fed with soybean meal (781 g) were intermediate between those of the pigs fed with blue (744 g) or yellow lupine (810 g) mixed with rapeseed press cake and these differences were not significant.…”

Use of semi-leafless peas (Pisum sativum L) with enzyme addition in diets for broilers

“…The crude protein content was comparable to previous reports where the same pea variety was used (Partanen et al 2001, Partanen et al 2006. Cystine, lysine, methionine (only in case of enzyme unsupplemented diets) and threonine contents were the highest for diets that included peas up to 150 g kg -1…”

Carbon footprint of five pig diets using three land use change accounting methods

“…SBM. Several studies show the potential of these legumes as alternative protein sources for SBM in pig diets (Bohumila and Zdenek, 2009;Jezierny et al, 2010;Partanen et al, 2006;Van Nevel et al, 2000), although their use is limited due to their lower nutritional value and anti-nutritional factors. Literature data surveyed by Van Nevel et al (2000) showed that diets containing 4200 g of lupin seeds/kg of feed caused a lowered daily gain and feed intake in fattening pigs.…”