Lentils a Good Protein Source for Weanling Pigs
26 September 2011  Farm-Scape is sponsored by
Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork FarmScape is a Wonderworks Canada production and is distributed courtesy of Manitoba Pork Council and Sask Pork. |
Lentils contain higher levels of protein than cereal grains but less than canola meal or soybean meal and are a potentially good source of energy but they contain antinutritional compounds that can reduce performance when fed to pigs.
An abundance of lentils following the 2010 harvest prompted researchers to launch a three week feeding trial in which lentils were included in the diets of nursery pigs weaned at three weeks of age.
Dr Ruurd Zijlstra, an animal science professor with the University of Alberta, says the trial began about one week after weaning and researchers gradually replaced 20 per cent of the soybean meal and ten per cent of the wheat in the ration with lentils.
Dr Ruurd Zijlstra-University of Alberta
Probably two things that we found.
The first one is pigs actually are willing to eat lentils so there was basically no response to feed intake so that's a very good thing because it means the anti-nutritional factors that were still in these lentils, they did not have a negative impact on voluntary feed intake, so in other words from that perspective we can feed 30 per cent lentil.
The other thing we found is that using the predicted digestible nutrient profile that we use for feed formulation, up to about 22 and a half per cent of lentil we did not find a change in average daily gain and feed efficiency but once we moved to 30 per cent of lentils we saw a slight negative effect on daily gain and feed efficiency.
That means that we conclude that up to close to 20 per cent of lentil in the diet for nursery pigs, you shouldn't expect a negative impact on performance.
Dr Zijlstra says the big advantage is lentils are one more feedstuff that can be considered for diet formulation providing more flexibility in the feedstock matrix.
ThePigSite News Desk
Tunisian Feed Production Leaps Forward
25 May 2012Assessing Safety of Enterococcus faecium in Feed
23 May 2012CME: Corn Planting Near Record-High Condition
22 May 2012WPX Seminars to Focus on Business Management
22 May 2012France, Romania Adjust Pig Populations
25 May 2012Pressure on VION's Profits in 2011
25 May 2012New Livestock Tax Rules in Budget 2012
25 May 2012Govt of Canada Supports Manitoba Hog Industry
25 May 201287M Kg of Pork Smuggled in 2011 into Philippines
25 May 2012International Animal Welfare Systems Adopted
25 May 2012El Nino Risk Rising for Late Summer
24 May 2012
© 2000 - 2012. 5m Publishing, Benchmark House, 8 Smithy Wood Drive, Sheffield, S35 1QN, England.