Dietary Lysine And Slaughter Weight Affect Growth Performance And Carcass Characteristics in Boars and Barrows

Kansas State University Swine Research. During the growing and finishing period, the boars ate less, had better F/G, and were less fat than barrows. A high plane of nutrition (high vs moderate lysine concentrations for the growing-finishing phases) and decreasing slaughter weight from 260 to 220 lb also improved efficiency of gain and carcass leanness. However, many notable interactions occurred among the gender lysine slaughter weight treatments. Also, year (rotational-cross of average health status and lean growth potential vs a terminal-cross of high lean growth potential after repopulation of the farm) had pronounced effects on growth performance and carcass merits such that the combination of lean genotype-boarshigh lysine-220 lb had advantages of 15, 20, 39, 49, and 15% for ADG, ADFI, and F/G, avg backfat thickness, and fat-free lean index, respectively, compared to the control (i.e., the avg lean growth-barrows-moderate lysine-260 lb treatment).