Abstract
In 2000, EU regulations for organic animal production set new guidelines for organic pig feeding requiring that this be based on mainly home-grown organic feedstuffs. Doubts were however raised whether these feeding regimes can maintain good growth performance and carcass quality of pigs. Three experiments were carried out to study different organic feeding regimes in weaned piglets and fattening pigs. In Experiment 1, we evaluated the use of peas and faba beans (0, 120, or 240 g kg-1) in diets for weaned piglets. Piglets fed pea diets performed as well as those fed the control diet, whereas the highest faba bean level resulted in reduced feed intake and growth performance. In Experiment 2, we studied the replacement (0, 33, or 67%) of rapeseed cake with blue lupins in fattening pig diets. The dietary lupin level had a quadratic effect on the weight gain of growing pigs, the best performance being observed at the 33% replacement level. However, dietary lupin level did not influence weight gain during the finishing period and total fattening. Back fat became softer with increasing dietary lupin levels. In Experiment 3, different protein supplements were compared in organic diets from weaning to slaughter. In two-phase feeding, the best performance was observed when whey protein was used as the protein supplement, followed by soya bean cake + whey protein and rapeseed cake + fish meal. The effects of a one-phase organic feeding regime with cold-pressed rapeseed cake + whey protein did not differ from those of the two-phase organic feeding regimes. Fattening pigs fed organic diets required from two to seven days longer to reach slaughter weight than those fed conventional diets. Pigs fed organic diets had fatter carcasses, but the eating quality of organic pork did not differ from that of pork from pigs fed conventional diets. Feed costs and the circulation rate of pigs, weaners in particular, were greater and carcass prices lower in the organic feeding regimes than in the conventional ones.;
Highlights
Introduction oped slowlyIn general, there has been little information available on the impact of organic feeding regimes on the performance and carcass quality of pigs to support farmers in their decisions ( Sundrum2001)
Information on the effect of organic feeding regimes on the performance of weaned piglets is scarce, for previous studies had focused on fattening pigs only
The exclusion of amino acid supplementations from diets based on organically produced feedstuffs has reduced growth performance of pigs and increased intramuscular fat content (Sundrum et al 2000)
Summary
Introduction oped slowlyIn general, there has been little information available on the impact of organic feeding regimes on the performance and carcass quality of pigs to support farmers in their decisions ( Sundrum2001). There has been little information available on the impact of organic feeding regimes on the performance and carcass quality of pigs to support farmers in their decisions Information on the effect of organic feeding regimes on the performance of weaned piglets is scarce, for previous studies had focused on fattening pigs only. There is a lack of information concerning the effect of organic feeding regimes on the eating quality of pork (Woese et al.1977). The objectives of our study were to investigate in three experiments the effects of different organic feeding regimes based on home-grown feedstuffs on the performance of weaned piglets and fattening pigs and on the eating quality of pork. We studied the use of peas and faba beans in diets for weaned piglets, secondly, the replacement of rapeseed cake with blue lupins in diets for fattening pigs, and thirdly, we compared the use of different protein supplements in cereal-pea-based organic diets from weaning to slaughter
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