Stomach Lesions Slightly Reduced by Feeding Cracked Corn

Feeding finishing pigs with cracked maize at a level of up to 40 per cent had no effect of growth rate but worsened feed conversion and dressing percentage without significantly reducing stomach lesions, according to research presented at last year's Kansas Swine Day.

23 February 2011

3 minute read

At the 2010 Kansas Swine Day, S.M. Williams and co-authors presented the results of their research into the effects of feeding cracked corn on stomach lesions in finishing pigs.

In their trial, a total of 208 pigs (104 barrows and 104 gilts, initial average 138lb) were used in a 63-day experiment to determine the effects of adding cracked corn to diets for finishing pigs. The pigs were sorted by ancestry and blocked by weight with 13 pigs per pen and four pens per treatment.

Treatments were corn-soybean meal-based with none, 10, 20, or 40 per cent roller-milled corn (mean particle size of 3,549µm). Particle size for the none, 10, 20, and 40 per cent cracked corn diets were 684, 926, 979, and 1,187 µm, respectively. Feed and water were offered ad libitum until slaughter (average final body weight of 268lb) at a commercial facility.

Overall (days 0 to 63), increasing cracked corn from none to 40 per cent had no effect on average daily gain (ADG; P>0.98) and average daily feed intake (ADFI; P>0.41) but feed to gain ratio (F/G) was numerically poorer (linear, P<0.11). Adding cracked corn had no effect on hot carcass weight (HCW; P>0.17) or backfat thickness (P>0.69) but dressing percentage was decreased (linear effect, P<0.05).

For both stomach keratinisation and ulcer scores, as the percentage of cracked corn increased, there was a decrease (linear, P<0.009) in scores for ulcers and stomach keratinisation (scale of 0=none, 1=mild, 2=moderate and 3=severe) but even the worst treatment had an average lesion score of less than mild.

According to Williams and co-authors, their results indicate that increasing cracked corn from none to 40 per cent of diets for finishing pigs did not affect rate of gain but worsened F/G and dressing percentage with only slight improvements in scores for stomach lesions.

Reference

Williams, S.M., C.B. Paulk, J.D. Hancock, S. Issa, and T.L. Gugle. 2010. Effects of cracked corn on growth performance and stomach lesions in finishing pigs. Proceedings of Kansas Swine Day 2010, Kansas State University, p115-118.