Growth performance and plasma urea concentration of growing pigs fed sorghum-soybean meal, low-protein diets

THE DIETARY CRUDE PROTEIN (CP) CAN BE REDUCED BY FOUR PERCENTAGE UNITS WHEN CORN-SOYBEAN MEAL (SBM) AND CRYSTALLINE AMINO ACIDS (AA) ARE USED TO FORMULATE DIETS FOR GROWING PIGS. WITH SORGHUM THE RESULTS HAVE NOT BEEN CONCLUSIVE. THEREFORE, TWO EXPERIMENTS WERE CONDUCTED TO DETERMINE THE LOWEST CP VALUE IN SORGHUM-SBM, AA SUPPLEMENTED DIETS, USING PLASMA UREA NITROGEN (PUN), GROWTH PERFORMANCE, AND CARCASS CHARACTERISTICS AS THE RESPONSE CRITERIA. IN EXPERIMENT 1, THE PERCENTAGE OF CP IN THE TREATMENTS WAS AS FOLLOWS: T1) 16.0, CONTROL DIET; T2) 14.5; T3) 13.0; AND T4) 11.5. EIGHT GILTS WERE USED IN A CROSS-OVER DESIGN WITH FOUR PERIODS OF 7 DAYS EACH. BLOOD SAMPLES WERE COLLECTED THE LAST DAY OF THE PERIOD TO DETERMINE PUN. SEVERAL REGRESSION MODELS WERE USED TO OBTAIN THE BEST PREDICTION OF PUN. THE LOWEST PUN INDICATED THAT CP CAN BE REDUCED FROM 16 TO 11.5%. THE BEST REGRESSION MODEL WAS THE NONLINEAL EXPONENTIAL, WHICH CAN PREDICT THAT THE MINIMUM PLASMA UREA CONCENTRATION IS OBTAINED WITH 10.48% OF CP. IN EXPERIMENT 2, THE PERCENTAGE OF CP AND METABOLIZABLE ENERGY MCAL KG-1) WERE AS FOLLOWS: T1) 16, 3.265, CONTROL; T2) 16, 3.165; T3) 14.5, 3.265; T4) 14.5, 3.165; T5) 11.5, 3.265; AND T6) 11.5, 3.165. THIRTY BARROWS WERE ASSIGNED IN A COMPLETELY RANDOMIZED DESIGN WITH A 3A—2 FACTORIAL ARRANGEMENT, SIX TREATMENTS AND FIVE REPLICATES OF ONE BARROW (INDIVIDUALLY PENNED) FOR EACH TREATMENT. THE LOWEST CP REDUCED THE AVERAGE DAILY GAIN, FEED GAIN RATIO, AND PUN. THE LOWEST ME REDUCED THE FEED GAIN RATIO. THESE RESULTS INDICATE THAT REDUCING CP DIMINISHES PUN, ALTHOUGH SOME PRODUCTIVE VARIABLES ARE AFFECTED.