Effect of Feeding a Reduced Crude Protein and Reduced Phosphorus Diet on Growth Performance and Carcass Characteristics in Grow-Finish Swine

Purdue University 2003 Swine Research Report. The swine industry has undergone many production changes over the past two decades. Production facilities have become more concentrated, not only in the number of pigs reared at one operation, but also the number of production facilities located in the same geographic area. A negative aspect of this increased animal concentration is the increase in the amount of manure that is produced and the land that is needed for manure application at environmenta lly sustainable rates. Many practices are currently being explored to increase the amount of manure that can be spread on the same amount of land by reducing the concentration of nutrients excreted in the urine and feces. Three such practices include: feeding diets with a reduced crude protein level and supplementing with crystalline amino-acids, replacing normal corn with high available phosphorus (HAP) corn, and the inclusion of phytase in the diet. The purpose of this experiment was to combine these three feeding practices into the same low nutrient excretion (LNE) diet and measure its effect on growth performance and carcass characteristics in grow-finish swine.