Swine Nutrition and Management

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Swine Nutrition and Management

• AnS 225
• Fall 2009

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Introduction

• Feed represents 60-75 of the total cost of pork
  production
• Improvements in production (ADG, p/s/y, etc.)
  have led to changes in nutrient recommendations
• Diets must be balanced to meet the pigs
  requirements
• Diets may have a margin of safety to protect
  against nutrient deficiencies
• Must be cost effective without wasting

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Major Biological Processes Affected by Nutrient
Intake

• Maintenance
• Repair or replacement of body tissues and fluids
• Voluntary (walking) and involuntary (heart
  contractions) activities
• Generation of body heat for warmth
• Regulation of immune systems
• Growth
• Production of body tissues (muscle, bone), organs
  (mammary glands), fluids (milk), fluid components
  (red blood cells)

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Factors Affecting Nutrient Requirements

• Environment
• Temperature, weather, housing, competition
• Breed, sex, and genetic background
• Health status of the herd
• Presence of molds, toxins, or inhibitors
• Availability and absorption of dietary nutrients

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Factors Affecting Nutrient Requirements

• Variation of nutrient content and availability in
  the feed
• Level of feed additives or growth promotants
• Energy concentration in the diet
• Level of feeding limit feeding vs. ad libitum

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Energy

• Mostly supplied by carbohydrates and fats
• Cereal grains corn, milo, wheat, barley, and
  their by-products
• Fat 2.25 X energy density of cereal grains
• Most cereal grains and fats are palatable and
  digestible
• Cereal by-products are more variable limited
  use in swine diets

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Cereal Grains

• Corn is primary energy source
• Generally meet the pigs energy needs
• Must be supplemented with
• Amino acids (protein)
• Vitamins
• Minerals
• Must determine adequate energy intake
• If low-energy feeds are used or external factors
  limit feed intake
• Pigs are limit fed sows and gilts

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Additional Energy Sources

• Milo equal substitute for corn primarily used
  in Southwest
• Wheat excellent feed grain, usually not
  competitive in price
• Barley more lysine but less energy and more
  fiber than corn
• Oats more lysine, more fiber, limited use
• Modified corn varieties selected for improved
  qualities
• High-oil corn, high-lysine corn, etc.

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Fat in Swine Diets

• Choice white grease, beef tallow, corn oil,
  soybean oil
• 2.25 X metabolizable energy of cereal grains
• 3 5 fat in grow-finish diets will improve ADG
  and FE
• Tends to increase backfat
• Reduces dust and wear on equipment
• Potential handling and storage problems quality
  can be an issue
• Economic decision

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Proteins andAmino Acids

• Pig does not have a specific requirement for
  crude protein
• Does have requirements for amino acids
• Proteins are made up of different combinations of
  approximately 20 different amino acids
• Proteins are broken down into amino acids that
  are absorbed into the bloodstream
• Crude protein usually meets AA requirements
  must check if synthetic amino acids or
  by-products are used

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Essential Amino Acids

• 10 essential amino acids
• Most cereal grains are limiting in lysine,
  tryptophan, threonine, and methionine
• Level determines protein quality lysine is most
  important
• Limiting amino acid protein synthesis cannot
  proceed beyond level of any essential amino acid
• Deficiency results in lower ADG, reduced FE,
  unthriftiness, and reduced reproductive
  performance

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Amino Acid Deficiency

• Consider amino acids as the staves of a barrel
• You can fill the barrel (growth rate) only to the
  level of the shortest stave

Methionine
Threonine
Isoleucine
Tryptophan
Lysine
Valine
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Rain Barrel Concept

• Shortage of an amino acid will limit growth and
  (or) reproductive performance

Methionine
Threonine
Isoleucine
Valine
Tryptophan
Lysine
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Sources of Amino Acids

• Plant sources
• Soybean meal primary source in swine diets
• Cottonseed meal
• Corn gluten meal
• Animal sources
• Meat and bone meal
• Tankage
• Fish meal
• Spray-dried blood meal early-weaned pig diets

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Synthetic Amino Acids

• Can reduce feed costs and maintain pig
  performance
• Lysine and methionine are most common
• Synthetic lysine can reduce soybean meal
  requirement must evaluate economics
• Not used in gestation and lactation diets
• Gestation poorly utilized if not fed ad libitum
• Lactation decreases amount of other AA relative
  to lysine reduce litter weaning weights

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Minerals

• Role ranges from structural functions to wide
  variety of regulatory functions
• Important for health and well-being of the pig
• Importance increased with confinement due to
  reduced access to soil and forages
• Macrominerals major minerals
• Calcium, phosphorus, sodium, chlorine, magnesium,
  potassium
• Microminerals minor or trace minerals
• Zinc, copper, iron, manganese, iodine, selenium,
  chromium

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Addition of Minerals to Swine Diets

• Should not be added haphazardly
• If a little is good, more is better does not
  hold true
• Some minerals, if added in excess, will interfere
  with absorption of other minerals
• All minerals have a toxic level
• Impact on environment

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Calcium and Phosphorus

• Important in skeletal structure and development
• Essential for blood clotting, muscle contraction,
  energy metabolism
• Deficiency will result in impaired bone
  mineralization, reduced bone growth, and poor
  growth rate
• Downer Sows may result if sows are fed diets
  low in Ca and P sows remove Ca and P from the
  bone, decreasing bone strength

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Calcium and Phosphorus

• Calcium
• Most grains are low in calcium
• Limestone is source of supplemental Ca
• Phosphorus
• Mainly supplied by dicalcium phosphate or
  monocalcium phosphate
• Feeds of animal origin are high in calcium and
  available phosphorus
• P content of cereal grains is mainly phytate
  phosphorus poorly utilized by swine

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Phytate Phosphorus Unavailable Form of
Phosphorus

• 50 to 70 of P in plant products is unavailable
  to the pig
• Not digested and is excreted in manure
• Excess phosphorus excretion into the environment
  formulate diets based on available P
• Phytase enzyme that increases digestibility of
  phytate phosphorus
• Use to reduce phosphorus excretions
• Evaluate economics

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Vitamins

• Required for normal metabolic function
• Development of normal tissues
• Growth and maintenance
• Some are produced by the pig, some are present in
  commonly used feed ingredients, several must be
  added to swine diets
• Natural sources very few are used today
• Green leafy plants, grasses, alfalfa
• Less variety in feed ingredients to supply
  vitamins
• Vitamin content of grain and protein sources may
  be unavailable or lost during storage

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Important Vitamins

• Fat-soluble
• A, D, E, and K
• Water-soluble or B-complex
• Pantothenic acid
• Riboflavin
• Niacin
• B12
• Gestation/Lactation Diets
• Folic acid, pyridoxine, choline, biotin
• Synthetic vitamins added in form of vitamin premix

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Changes in Vitamin/Mineral Nutrition

• Increased confinement no access to growing
  crops and soil
• Increased use of slotted floors less recycling
  of feces
• Fewer protein sources in diets
• Reduced daily feed intake in gestation
• Early weaning of pigs diet is more critical
• Availability of nutrients in heat-dried grains
  and feed ingredients varies widely

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Water

• Most essential and cheapest of all nutrients
• Water deprivation
• Reduces feed consumption, limits growth and feed
  efficiency, lowers milk production
• Physiological functions
• Temperature regulation
• Transport of nutrients and wastes
• Metabolic processes
• Lubrication
• Milk production

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Water Requirements

• Related to feed intake and body weight
• 80 of BW at birth
• 50 of BW in finished market pig
• Pigs consume 1.5 to 2X as much water as feed
• Need is increased with
• High salt intake
• High temperatures
• Fever, diarrhea
• Lactation
• Wet feeding or liquid feeding
• Improved FE and less water wastage in finishing
• Potential for spoilage and mold problems

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Wet-Dry Feeder
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Feed Additives

• Animal drugs antibiotics, dewormers
• Withdrawal time
• Growth-promoting minerals
• Copper sulfate, zinc oxide
• Enzymes phytase
• Organic acids may improve digestibility for
  early weaned pigs
• Probiotics organisms that stimulate growth of
  desirable organisms in the gut
• Lactobacillus, streptococcus, etc.

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Feed Processing Systems

• Complete feed ready-to-feed product delivered
  to the farm
• Grain and supplement (40 protein)
• Base mix program everything except grain and
  protein
• Premix program
• Most precisely designed and cost-effective
• Macro minerals, trace minerals, and vitamins
  added to protein and grain

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Feed Budgeting

• Changing diets based on calculated F/G rather
  than by visually estimating weight
• If a pig should have a 21 F/G from 20 to 50 lb,
  then it should need 60 lb of feed.
• Multiply number of pigs to be fed by amount of
  feed and deliver that amount.
• When that feed allowance is used up, switch diets.

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Evaluating Economics

• Base price of ingredients is important
• Cheapest diet is not always best
• Evaluate cost/lb of gain
• Numerous opportunities to evaluate and adjust
  diets

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Nutrients of Primary Concern in Swine Waste
Nutrient Mgt.

• Nitrogen
• Amino Acids that comprise the Proteins required
  for life
• Phosphorus
• Mineral required for bone development, body
  function, health, etc.

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Nutritional Approaches

• High quality protein
• Balance of amino acids in protein sources defines
  quality
• Soybean meal and fish meal High Quality
• Peanut meal and cottonseed meal Low Quality
• Excess nitrogen excretion occurs when using too
  much low quality protein in feed
• Most limiting AA can define the amount of protein
  included in a diet thus feeding protein to meet
  the most limiting AA can increase Nitrogen
  excretion

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Nutritional Approaches

• Dietary formulation
• Formulate and balance diets to meet the Amino
  Acid requirement, rather than the Crude Protein
  requirement, for the optimal lean growth rate of
  the genetic type of pigs you raise
• Crystalline lysine and methionine are generally
  cost effective
• Synthetic threonine, valine, isoleucine,and
  tryptophan are available, but may not be cost
  effective
• Lysine substituted for soybean meal reduces CP by
  2 in the diet and can result in a 20 to 25
  reduction in N excretion (Pierce et al, 1994)

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On-Farm Strategies to Improve P Utilization and
Reduce P Excretion

• Phosphorus excretion is Influenced by
• Amount of phosphorus consumed
• Excess fortification of P in diets was common in
  the past, but not wise and unjustified today
• Form or bioavailability of the phosphorus in the
  diet
• Phosphorus in the Phytate or phytic acid form is
  largely unavailable to swine because swine lack
  the intestinal enzyme phytase to break down the
  phytate
• Large differences in bioavailability of
  phosphorus in common feedstuffs

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Nutritional Approaches to Reducing Phosphorus
Excretion

• Poultry and swine lack a critical enzyme
  (phytase) which releases phosphorus from phytic
  acid and makes it available for utilization
• Approximately 2/3 of plant phosphorus is bound to
  phytic acid and is unavailable for utilization by
  both swine and poultry
• Thus, inorganic P sources (Di-calcium phosphate,
  de-fluorinated phosphate) are added to diets

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On-Farm Strategies to Improve P Utilization and
Reduce P Excretion

• Addition of microbial phytase to swine diets
• Aids degradation of phytate in the digestive
  tract, making more P available (Cromwell, 1993,
  1995)
• releases 20 to 40 of the bound P in most
  ingredients
• Phosphorus excretion decreased by 30 to 40 in
  finishing pigs (Pierce et al. 1997)
• Phytase combined with a reduction from 0.6 P to
  0.5 P (inorganic) in the pig diet results in a
  20 to 50 reduction in Phosphorus excretion
• In addition, Ca is more readily absorbed
  resulting in reduced Ca excretion

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Ethanol By-products

• Distillers Dried Grain with Solubles (DDGS)
• DDGS differ across ethanol plants
• Grain source
• Fineness of grind
• Cooking techniques
• Dilution rate
• Quality of the fermentation process
• Ratio of solubles added to the grain fraction
• Distillation and drying process, etc.
• Mycotoxins

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Nutrient Analysis
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Feeding DDGS

• Primarily replaces corn in the diet
• Key is to balance diet for lysine, Ca, P
• Nutrient variation is real issue
• Reduced belly firmness, soft pork fat, meat
  quality?
• Maximum inclusion rate
• Nursery 25
• Finishing 20
• Gestation 50
• Lactation 20

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Benefits of Using DDGS in Swine Diets

• Often an economical partial replacement for
• corn
• soybean meal
• dicalcium phosphate
• Large supply available where hogs are produced
• Unique properties
• reduce P excretion in manure
• increase litter size weaned/sow
• gut health benefits

Source Shurson, U of MN
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Current DDGS Feeding Practices

• Used almost exclusively in grow-finish diets
• 10 inclusion most common
• Gut health benefits frequently observed
• Up to15 to 20 inclusion
• When competitively priced
• Need to supplement with synthetic amino acids
• Limited use in sow feeds
• Perceived risk of mycotoxins
• 10 inclusion when used
• Limited use in nursery feeds
• Lower amino acid content/nutrient density vs
  other ingredients
• Limited formulation space in high nutrient dense
  diets
• 5 inclusion when used

Source Shurson, U of MN
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Large Pen Finishing
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Farmweld Auto-Sort System
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Farmweld Auto-Sort System
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Lounging/Sleeping Area
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Food Court
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Sorting by Weight