Compensatory growth after feed restriction during the rearing period in pigs

Authors

• Jarmo Valaja Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Timo Alaviuhkola Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Kaija Suomi Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland
• Irma Immonen Agricultural Research Centre of Finland, Swine Research Station, SF-05840 Hyvinkää, Finland

DOI: https://doi.org/10.23986/afsci.72425

Abstract

The compensatory growth after feed restriction was studied in an experiment with 120 pigs which were divided into two test treatments: control (C) and restricted (R) feeding. During the first period, from the age of seven weeks to 25 kg of live weight, R pigs were fed twice and C pigs three times the maintenance level. During the second period, from 25 kg to 100 kg of live weight, both treatments were given the same amount of feed from 1.4 to 3.2 feed units/pig/day. The daily feed intake of R pigs was significantly lower (p<0.001) than that of C pigs during the restriction period (0.69 vs. 0.99 FU/pig/d). R pigs gained also significantly less weight (p<0.01) than C pigs (344 vs. 527 g/d) and the length of the first period was longer for R pigs compared to C pigs (p<0.001). During the second period R pigs compensated the retarded growth caused by feed restriction. R pigs gained significantly more weight (p<0.01) than C pig (955 vs. 924 g/d) and feed conversion efficiency (FCE) was better (2.52 vs. 2.60 FU/kg gain) (p<0.05). Significant differences were found also between the treatments in the length of the second period (p<0.05) and in the total feed consumption (p<0.05). No differences were found in carcass composition between the treatments. Fullsib test indexes were calculated from the results of the second period for both treatments based on the method used in Finnish on-station progeny testings. The index means for C and R pigs were 2.7 and 6.3, respectively.