Dietary Energy and Feed Efficiency in Swine

John F. Patience, 2012

Feed Efficiency is a Dangerous Production Target when Viewed in Isolation

• Influenced by feed composition
 – Energy, amino acid concentration, nutrient balance
 – Gross deficiencies of other nutrients
 – Feed processing：grinding, pelleting, enzymes
 – Feed additives

• Influenced by environmental factors
 – Temperature, health (huge), access to feed 

• Influenced by the pig
 – Growth rate, protein:lipid ratio, starting and final weight, mortality

Take home Messages:

1. Energy contributes the greatest cost portion to pig diets

2. There is growing interest in dietary energy because it influences both income and expenses in pork production, and because there remains uncertainty on exactly how to express energy in diet formulation

3. Existing energy systems do a decent job in diet formulation but we know there are gaps that cost our industry significant amounts of money

4. Increasing energy in the diet almost always improves feed efficiency, and generally also

improves growth rate

5. Feed costs can be reduced by lowering dietary energy, but net income will only be maximized if pigs can increase feed intake to adjust accordingly or if housing space is increased

6. Lower energy diets require increased feed intake which means more eating time at the feeder

7. The increased use of co-product ingredients, with their increased variability, means that

much greater attention must be paid to QA processes.