GROWTH PERFORMANCE AND CARCASS COMPOSITION OF GROWING PIGS DERIVED FROM TWO HERDS

and fostered onto a recently farrowed sow as a litter group. At seven weeks of age the Parkville pigs were matched with ten Wollongbar pigs, randomly selected from 25 litters, on the basis of sex and seven week weight, and housed in individual pens with free access to nipple drinkers and a minimum temperature of 22oc. A wheat and soya--bean meal diet, estimated to contain 14.5 MJ/kg digestible energy (DE), air-dry basis, was supplemented with free lysine to contain 0.84 and 0.60 g total lysine/MJ DE and fed during the 20-50 and 50-80 kg liveweight phases respectively. All pigs,were fed ad libitum and slaughtered after reaching 85 kg live weight. The left side of each carcass was divided into ham, middle and shoulder and physically dissected into muscle, bone and fat.