nutrition – Swine in Minnesota

The role of feed in sustainable pork production: How feeding programs affect environmental impacts of pork production – Part 1

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This and next week’s science pages are brought us by researchers in the University of Minnesota’s Department of Animal Science: Zhaohui Yang, Pedro Urriola, Lee Johnston, and Gerald Shurson.

Phase-Feeding: Do Fewer Phases Compromise Growth Performance in Grow-Finish?

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week, Dr. Mariana Menegat for Kansas State Univeristy shares her latest results when evaluating the optimal number of phases in feeding growing pigs.

Key Points

Fewer dietary phases, i.e. from 4 to 3 or 2 phases, with lysine levels set close to the requirements does not compromise growth performance of grow-finish pigs.

Energy, amino acid, and phosphorus digestibility and energy prediction of thermally processed food waste sources for swine

This week, the swine nutrition team at the University of Minnesota is presenting their latest publication on food waste and its nutritional value.

Key Points

The digestibility of energy and nutrients of fish waste, supermarket waste, and vegetable waste was investigated.
Both fish and supermarket waste were excellent sources of digestible energy, metabolizable energy, and digestible amino acids
These food waste sources could be used to partially replace corn and soybean meal in swine diets to reduce environmental impact

Addition of antioxidants controls and delays lipid oxidation, but does not affect growth performance and oxidative status of pigs fed oxidized oils

This week, the swine nutrition group from the College of Food, Agricultural, and Natural Resource Sciences at the University of Minnesota share the impact of antioxidants on feed quality and growth performances in pigs.

Key points

The addition of synthetic antioxidants can improve lipid stability, but does not completely prevent further oxidation in both fresh (unoxidized) and oxidized lipids.
The addition of synthetic antioxidants did not affect growth performance of pigs fed oxidized oil, but improved signs of oxidative stress.

What is the impact of zinc in late-gestation diets?

Our colleagues in the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural resource Sciences (CFANS) have shared one of their latest projects with the National Hog Farmer readers. They found that adding higher amounts of zinc in the late-gestation diet of sows in both a research and commercial herd increased the survival of smaller piglets until they are weaned.