125 Effects of Wheat Middlings and Sugar Beet Pulp on Growth Performance of Nursery Pigs

Abstract

Abstract An experiment was conducted to determine the interactive effects of wheat middlings (WM) and sugar beet pulp (SBP), on growth performance of nursery pigs. A total of 2,393 pigs (initial BW = 7.4 kg), placed in pens with 33 to 35 pigs each, were used in a 42-d trial. Treatments were arranged in a 2 × 3 factorial structure with two levels of WM (0 or 15%) and three levels of SBP (0, 2.5, or 5%) with 12 replicates per treatment. Corn and a fermented soybean meal product (ME-Pro, Prairie AquaTech, Brookings, SD) were replaced by the fiber sources to achieve the desired levels, whereas soybean meal inclusion rate was held constant across treatments. Diets were not balanced for net energy. The experimental diets were fed from d 0 to 21 and a common corn-soybean meal-based diet was fed from d 21 to 42. Pigs were weighed on d 0, 21, and 42 to calculate ADG, ADFI, and G:F (Table 1). Data were analyzed with the MIXED procedure in SAS. There was no evidence (P > 0.10) for WM × SBP interactive effects. From d 0 to 21, pigs fed WM had poorer (P ≤ 0.040) ADG, ADFI, and G:F. Feeding up to 5% SBP did not affect (P > 0.10) growth performance. From d 21 to 42, pigs previously fed WM had improved (P = 0.012) G:F and those previously fed SBP had decreased (P, linear = 0.032) G:F. Overall (d 0 to 42), pigs fed WM had lower (P ≤ 0.048) ADG and G:F and those fed SBP had decreased (P, linear = 0.012) G:F. In conclusion, there were no interactive effects between WM and SBP. Pigs fed 15% WM had decreased performance and a minor impact was observed by feeding up to 5% SBP.