Abstract
There is an interest in replacing soybean meal with locally produced ingredients in livestock feeds. Narbon vetch is resistant to unfavorable climatic and soil conditions, common pests, and has a favorable nutritional profile. The effect of substitution of soybean meal with 0% (V0), 5% (V5), 10% (V10), and 20% (V20) inclusion of Narbon vetch on growth curve parameters, daily body weight gain (DBWG), daily feed intake (DFI), feed conversion efficiency (FCE), and residual feed intake (RFI) was investigated in 47 Duroc × Iberian barrows in 16 periods (a total of 125 d). DFI and DBWG were reduced (p < 0.05) up to four weeks after introduction of the novel feed in V20 and V10. Small, mostly nonsignificant differences existed between treatments in FCE and RFI. However, because of accumulative small differences in feed efficiency between the four diets, pigs in V0 reached the highest BW, and pigs in V20 reached the lowest BW on a similar feed intake. Economic implications of Narbon vetch inclusion depend on the extra amount of feed required and associated feed costs, and on the costs of additional days on-farm required to reach a given slaughter weight.
Highlights
The exponential increase of the intercontinental trade of soybean has accompanied strong increases in pig production over the past few decades [1]
Pigs in V10 and V20 were estimated to grow to a lower mature body weight, A, but were estimated to do so at a similar rate of maturation with respect to feed intake, B, than pigs in V0 and V5 (Table 3)
MFI was reduced with an increased inclusion of Narbon vetch; this was not significant
Summary
The exponential increase of the intercontinental trade of soybean has accompanied strong increases in pig production over the past few decades [1]. Because of the notion of unsustainability of the heavy dependency on soybean meal imports and risk of trade disruptions, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in 2011 for stimulating on-farm animal feed production using mixed crops such as cereals and beans [5,7]. Reliance on foods or feeds produced near their point of consumption offers an array of economic, environmental, and social benefits, such as a reduced amount of energy used in their transport, improved economic viability of local farms and their communities, and decreased safety risks associated with decentralized production [8]. Using agricultural byproducts or locally produced protein sources such as beans, peas, rapeseed, and sunflower meal, is usually seen as a major opportunity to reduce the environmental impacts of simple nonruminant livestock production systems in Europe [9]. The cultivation of domestic protein plants and its research have been increasingly promoted in the EU [10]
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