Farm-Scape, Episode 2094

Research being conducted by the Prairie Swine Centre suggests hog producers can slash their feeding costs by incorporating feed peas and pulses into their diets.

Swine producers in Europe have been incorporating peas into swine rations for quite some time and more recently Canadian producers have been including peas at the expense of soybean meal which is imported from the United States.

Maximizing returns by Incorporating feed peas and pulses into diets will be among the topics explored next week in Saskatoon as part of Focus on the Future 2006.

Research scientist in charge of swine nutrition at the Prairie Swine Centre Dr. Pascal Leterme says the use of these ingredients varies considerably with some producers not using any and others using up to 30 percent in their diets.

"It's a good protein source it contains on average 22 to 25 percent of protein but it's an excellent energy source too so it can also replace part of the cereals and maintain a good energy level.

The energy value is higher than that of soybean meal so it's better from that point of view so, when we incorporate peas into the diet, we can do it at the expense of both wheat and soybean meal."

Dr. Leterme says, with feed peas running at about 112 dollars per tonne compared to feed wheat at about 92 dollars per tonne and soybean meal at about 267 dollars per tonne, using a mixture of 50 percent peas and 50 percent wheat to replace soybean meal will dramatically reduce feeding costs.

He notes, while most of the research has focused on peas, other pulses can also be used such as faba beans, chic peas and lentils.

For Farmscape.Ca, I'm Bruce Cochrane.