The value of Australian sorghum for fattening pigs

1950 ◽  
Vol 40 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 84-92 ◽  
Author(s):  
R. Braude ◽  
K. G. Mitchell ◽  
K. L. Robinson

1. At two centres, Hillsborough and Shinfield, forty-eight pigs in four groups were fattened on rations containing Australian sorghum. The control ration consisted of 30%, wheatfeed, 30% barley meal, 30% maize meal and 10% fish meal. In the three experimental rations either barley meal or maize meal or both were replaced by sorghum.2. The rations containing 30% of sorghum proved to be equal to the control ration as far as live-weight gain of the pigs and the efficiency with which they utilized food was concerned. When 60% of the ration consisted of sorghum there were indications that both rate of gain and food utilization suffered.3. Some aspects of carcass quality suffered when either sorghum alone or sorghum plus maize formed 60% of the ration. The quality of the control carcasses, although quite good by present-day standards, would not qualify for first grade when commercial grading is re-introduced.4. Bacon produced on rations containing up to 60% sorghum had no off-taste or unpleasant flavour.5. In general, the value of sorghum in the ration of fattening pigs was found to be about equal to that of maize.

1955 ◽  
Vol 46 (1) ◽  
pp. 31-36
Author(s):  
R. S. Barber ◽  
R. Braude ◽  
K. G. Mitchell

1. Three experiments are described in which the value of electrically warmed floors for fattening pigs, aged 9 weeks or more at the start of the trials, was determined.2. Under the conditions of the experiments, no benefit was obtained either in live-weight gain or efficiency of food utilization by the provision of artificial floor warming.3. Data relating to the effect on floor surface temperatures of ambient inside temperature, electrical warming, provision of straw and the pigs themselves were presented.


1962 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 13-24 ◽  
Author(s):  
T. G. Boaz ◽  
F. W. H. Elsley

Two experiments are described to investigate the effect of different weights of pigs at 56 days of age on live-weight gain, efficiency of feed utilisation and bacon carcass quality.1. In Experiment I a comparison was made between 32 pairs of weaners, reared on the sow, which weighed 31·0 1b. and 45·4 1b. respectively at 56 days of age. After separation into heavy and light groups the pigs were group fed to bacon weight.The heavy weaners reached 200 1b. eighteen days earlier than the light weaners but this difference was due completely to the slower rate of growth to 50 1b. live-weight. The heavy weaners required 3·59 1b. of meal per 1b. live-weight gain from 56 days of age to bacon weight compared with 3·50 1b. for the light weaners but there was no difference in efficiency of feed utilisation during the period taken to grow from 50 to 200 1b. There were no significant differences between the carcasses apart from an increased flare weight in the light weaners.2. In the second experiment both suckled and early-weaned pigs were reared to 30, 40 and 50 1b. at 56 days of age and then fed individually to 200 1b.The number of days taken to reach 200 1b. was 168·6 for the 50 1b. pigs, 176·6 for the 40 1b. pigs and 182·1 for the 30 1b. pigs; there were no differences due to the methods of rearing. The efficiency of feed utilisation from 56 days to 200 1b. was not affected by method of rearing but as weight increased from 30 to 50 1b. at 56 days, the meal required for a pound of subsequent live-weight gain increased from 3·06 to 3·24 1b.The number of days to increase from 50 to 200 1b. live-weight was 110·4 for the 50 1b. pigs, 109·3 for the 40 1b. and 106·3 for the 30 1b. pigs, again there being no differences due to the methods of rearing. There were no differences in efficiency of feed utilisation from 50 to 200 1b.Neither weight at 56 days nor method of rearing markedly affected the quality of the carcass but there was an indication that 56-day weight caused greater differences in the early-weaned treatments than in the suckled treatments.


1967 ◽  
Vol 9 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-133 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. J. F. Russel

Forage crops of the genus Brassica are known to contain goitrogens which under certain conditions can cause severe incidences of neonatal mortality in lambs and goitre in older sheep (Shand, 1952; Sinclair and Andrews, 1958, 1959, 1961; Andrews and Sinclair, 1962).In the course of studies of certain aspects of lamb growth it was noted that lambs grazing rape (Brassica napus) had heavier thyroid glands than comparable lambs grazing grass. Pipes, Premachandra and Turner (1958) found that a degree of hypothyroidism increased the rate of fattening and influenced the carcass quality of cattle, and in view of this and other evidence it was decided to test the hypothesis that changes in the weight of the thyroid glands of lambs grazing rape were associated with changes in the rate of live-weight gain.


1978 ◽  
Vol 90 (1) ◽  
pp. 131-137 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. S. El-Shobokshy ◽  
A. M. Aboul-Naga

SUMMARYLamb and fattening performance and carcass quality of Suffolk x local Ossimi cross-bred lambs are discussed. 1369 cross-bred lamb records over the period from 1957 to 1970 were available for the study. The lambs of 50–59% Suffolk were the best cross-bred group with an advantage of 7–7, 14–2 and 17–1% over the native Ossimi lambs in birth weight, 120-day and yearling body weights, respectively. Generally, lamb performance declined as the Suffolk breeding was increased. However, breed groups variation was not statistically significant, except for birth weight.Seventy-one weaned male lambs, 4 months of age, from three breed groups: 70–90% Suffolk, 35–45% Suffolk and local Ossimi, were fattened for 16 weeks using two levels of feeding. The two Suffolk cross-bred groups gained slightly more body weight than the local Ossimi. After 8 weeks of fattening, the 35–45% Suffolk lambs gained significantly more weight than the local lambs. However, the local lambs were more efficient in converting food to live-weight gain.The carcass quality of the Suffolk cross-bred lambs was better than the local lambs, and the advantage was greater for the high Suffolk breeding group.


1970 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1-6 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. A. Cole ◽  
G. W. Dean ◽  
J. R. Luscombe

SUMMARYBarley which had been stored after treatment with 0·8 % propionic acid was incorporated into pig diets in either the milled or the rolled form and its feeding value compared with that of barley stored dry and then ground, and of moist barley stored anaerobically and then rolled. The pigs were fed from 50 to 200 lb live weight on the four diets. Their performance was not affected by the method of storage of the barley, but those given rolled barley required 11% more dry matter per unit of live-weight gain than those given milled barley. There were no significant differences between the treatments in carcass measurements, or in apparent digestibility coefficients as measured by the chromic-oxide method.


Animals ◽  
2020 ◽  
Vol 10 (12) ◽  
pp. 2275
Author(s):  
Romina Rodríguez ◽  
Oscar Balocchi ◽  
Daniel Alomar ◽  
Rodrigo Morales

Under the predicted conditions of climate change, the productivity of temperate grasslands may be affected by drought stress, especially in spring and summer. In this scenario, water-deficit-tolerant species such as plantain and chicory are interesting alternatives for use in sheep production systems. In this study, we compared a mixture of plantain and chicory herbage (PCH) with a grass-based permanent sward (GBS) on the weight gain and meat quality of lambs finished on these grasslands. Fifteen weaned lambs (31.3 kg and 4 months of age) were assigned to each treatment for seven weeks in late spring and live weight gain (LWG), carcass and meat quality were evaluated. There was a tendency (p = 0.09) in final weight (40.3 ± 0.8 kg) and live weight gain (173 ± 10 g/d) to be higher in PCH compared to GBS. Carcass weight, dressing percentage and meat quality in terms of pH, color and tenderness did not differ (p > 0.05) and were considered to be of good quality. We concluded that both swards result in comparable lamb performance and good meat quality.


1980 ◽  
Vol 31 (3) ◽  
pp. 243-250 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Aston ◽  
J. C. Tayler

ABSTRACT1. Experiment 1. Six treatment groups of one British Friesian and four South Devon × British Friesian bulls, initially 432 kg mean live weight and aged 491 days, were offered individually maize or grass silage ad libitum plus 0, 5 or 10g barley dry matter per kg live weight daily for 80 days. The silages had similar digestible dry matter and estimated metabolizable energy contents but the grass silage contained more ammonia and acetic, propionic and butyric acids. Mean values for groups receiving respectively maize and grass silage diets were for dry-matter intake 17·7, 20·3, 20·4 and 13·0, 16·6, 18·7 g/kg live weight and for live-weight gain 1·00, 1·32, 1·46 and 0·65, 0·98, 1·22kg/day. Significantly more maize than grass silage dry matter was eaten when the silages were given alone and dry-matter intakes, live-weight and carcass gains were greater for maize silage diets. Dry-matter intake, live-weight and carcass gains, efficiency of feed use and carcass quality significantly improved when barley was given.2. Experiment 2. Six groups of five British Friesian bulls, initially 418 kg mean live weight and aged 474 days, were offered individually maize silage ad libitum with either urea or one of two quantities of aqueous ammonia mixed in at the time of feeding, plus 0 or 5 g barley dry matter per kg live weight daily for 90 days. The urea and ammonia-treated silages contained 125, 124 and 148 g crude protein per kg dry matter respectively, with pH values of 3·8, 3·9 and 4·3, and when given alone or with barley mean daily intakes (g dry matter per kg live weight) were 17·1, 18·6 for urea-treated silage diets, and 17·8, 18·8 and 16·9, 19·1 respectively for ammoniatreated silage diets. Live-weight gains were 0·69, 0·94, 0·63, 1·09, 0·64 and 1·07 kg/day. Ammonia treatment had no effect on intake or live-weight gain. Live-weight and carcass gains and carcass quality improved when barley was given.3. The maize silage offered in Experiment 1 contained similar metabolizable energy but more starch than that in Experiment 2 and was used more efficiently for live-weight gain.


1985 ◽  
Vol 40 (2) ◽  
pp. 259-265 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. England ◽  
Margaret Gill

ABSTRACTIn an experiment designed to investigate the effects on the growth and voluntary food intake of grass silage by calves, the silage was supplemented with varying levels of fish meal and sucrose. The grass silage had a pH of 3·6, a lactic acid content of 90·0 g/kg dry matter (DM) and total nitrogen content of 15·5 g/kg DM. Supplements of 50, 75 and 100 g fish meal per kg silage DM and 50, 75, 100 and 150 g sucrose per kg silage DM were mixed with the silage just prior to feeding. The eight diets were offered to 32, 4-month-old British Friesian steers for 12, 7-day periods. Intake was recorded daily and live weight weekly.Digestibility of organic matter (P < 0·05) and N (P < 0·001) were increased by fish-meal supplementation but the effect of level of fish meal was not significant. Sucrose supplementation significantly decreased both N (P < 0·01) and cellulose (P < 0·05) digestibility. The effect on cellulose digestibility increased with level of sucrose (P < 0·01).The intake of silage DM increased in response to increasing level of fish-meal inclusion when intake was expressed in terms of kg/day (P < 0·01) but not when expressed in g/kg live weight. Total DM intake showed a significant (P < 0·001) linear response when expressed both in terms of kg/day and g/kg live weight. The intake of silage DM declined in response to increased level of sucrose supplementation both in absolute (P < 0·05) and live-weight terms (P < 0·001) but sucrose supplementation had no significant effect on total intake.Live-weight gain was significantly increased with increasing level of fish-meal supplementation (P < 0·001), but sucrose supplementation had a significant effect on live-weight gain relative to the control treatment at only the 75 g/kg level, where live-weight gain was increased.


1985 ◽  
Vol 40 (1) ◽  
pp. 111-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
K. Yilala ◽  
M. J. Bryant

ABSTRACTTwo experiments are described in which individually-penned Suffolk × (Blue-faced Leicester × Swaledale) lambs were given complete diets based on grass silage, and voluntary intake, live-weight gain and nitrogen (N) retention were measured.Experiment 1 investigated the effects of supplements of fish meal (0, 60 and 120 g/kg diet dry matter (DM)) and barley (0, 150 and 300 g/kg diet DM) in a 3 × 3 design using 72 lambs. The lambs averaged 35 kg live weight at the start of the 47-day experiment. Fish-meal supplements increased daily intakes of diet DM, silage DM and metabolizable energy (ME), and improved daily gains, carcass weights and N retention. Barley supplements increased daily intakes of diet DM and ME, but reduced silage DM intake; live-weight gain, carcass weight and N retention were all improved.Experiment 2 investigated the effects of supplements of rapeseed meal (0 and 120 g/kg diet DM) in two forms (untreated and formaldehyde-treated) and barley (0 and 150 g/kg diet DM) in a 2 × 2 × 2 design with two missing treatments and using 48 lambs. The lambs averaged 39 kg live weight at the start of the 42-day experiment. Rapeseed meal supplements increased daily intakes of diet DM, silage DM and ME, and improved daily gains, carcass weights and N retention. Form of rapeseed meal had no effect. Barley increased diet DM and ME intakes and improved daily gains and carcass weights.


1969 ◽  
Vol 11 (3) ◽  
pp. 325-335 ◽  
Author(s):  
D. J. A. Cole ◽  
E. G. Clent ◽  
J. R. Luscombe

SUMMARYTwo experiments were carried out to compare the performance and carcass quality of pigs given diets based on barley, wheat or maize meal, and another two experiments comparing these cereals, flaked maize and sorghum. In general, differences in the utilization of feed for live-weight gain could be related to differences in the digestible energy content of the cereals used in the diet, although in some experiments pigs behaved atypically on individual diets. Flaked maize was consistently inferior to the other cereals in the efficiency of conversion of its digestible energy, possibly because of its poorer amino acid balance and its low levels of lysine and tryptophan in relation to energy. Differences between experiments in the performance of pigs fed on the various diets are also discussed. Differences between treatments in killing-out percentage and predicted lean percentage were small, and carcasses of pigs from all treatments were acceptable for bacon curing.


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