The effect on bacon pig backfat iodine number and calorific value of feeding barley or maize based diets to give different growth rates

Abstract

In an experiment involving sixty Large White pigs fed maize or barley based diets either ad libitum (AL) or to one of two restricted scales (R₁ and R₂), between 55 and 86 kg live weight, there were no significant cereal × feeding interactions for growth rate and the mean growth rates for the main effects were 0·62, 0·63, 0·81, 0·73 and 0·35 kg/day for the maize, barley, AL, R₁ and R₂ treatments respectively. There were no significant cereal × feeding treatment interactions for iodine number or calorific value of carcass backfat and the only significant differences between the main effects were those of lower iodine numbers for the barley (cf. maize) and the AT. (cf. R₁) treatments.