POSSIBILITIES TO INCREASE FEEDING EFFECTIVINESS IN SWINE

D. Simeanu, C. Pascal, R.M. Radu-Rusu

Abstract
    There are many ways to improve the effectiveness of animals’ feeding. Among these, one is to include the granulation stage in the technological flow of mixed feed manufacturing. Granulation could remove some drawbacks connected with feed usage as flours and so contribute to optimization of farm animals’ feeding. In the current paper we approached this theme in the particular situation of feeding fattening pigs. The experiment addressed 4 animal groups as biological material, each comprised 30 weaned piglets, aged 30 days. They were fed complete mixed feed with the same nutritional value but with different presentation, as follows: LM – control group – feeding with dried flour fodder; LG1 – feeding with granulated feed Φ2mm; LG2 – feeding with granulated feed Φ4mm; LG3 – feeding with granulated feed Φ7mm. During the study, there were tracked several productive traits, such as: body mass, average daily weight gain, total feed intake and feed conversion rate (FCR). By the end of the research, it was observed that the best results were produced by the pigs whom were given mixed feed with diameters of 2 and 4 mm, while granules with a 7 mm diameter didn't produced beneficial effects. In the groups with the best performances (LG1 and LG2), the final body mass was 1.58-2% higher compared to the control group, and the FCR on the whole fattening period was 2.75-4.77% more efficient than the one achieved by the pigs in control group.

Key words: granulation, swine, optimization, feeding