A comparison of Barley meal, meat meal, and dried buttermilk, fed alone and in various combinations, as supplements to whey for fattening pigs

Abstract

Two trials are reported in which pigs were fed at liveweights starting at 60 lb and 50 lb respectively, and finishing at 110 lb, with whey supplemented with meal mixtures containing a variety of proportions of barley meal, meat meal, and dried buttermilk. In the first trial, a daily meal supplement consisting of 1 lb barley meal gave growth as rapid as a supplement consisting of ½ lb meat meal and ½ lb barley meal. Complete replacement of the barley meal with meat meal resulted in a 15% rednction in growth rate and food efficiency; the difference in efficiency was significant (P<.05), while the difference in growth rate just failed to reach significance. A supplement consisting of ⅔ lb dried buttermilk and ⅓ lb barley meal resulted in significantly faster and more efficient growth than the meat meal supplement (P <.01). In the second trial, a 15% higher level of feeding was employed. Initially the daily meal supplement was 1½ lb; after the attainment of 80 lb liveweight the supplement was reduced to 1 lb. Seven supplemental meal mixtures were compared, consisting of barley meal alone, and ¼ lb, ½ lb, and 1 lb of either meat meal or dried buttermilk, together with appropriate amounts of barley meal. Relative to the all-barley supplement, none of the supplements containing meat meal produced any significant difference in performance. However, growth rate and food efficiency improved progressively with increasing proportions of dried buttermilk in the supplemental mixture.