FEEDING AND METABOLISM TRIALS, AND ASSESSMENT OF CARCASS AND MEAT QUALITY FOR GROWING-FINISHING PIGS FED NAKED OATS (Avena nuda)

Forty-eight Yorkshire pigs (barrows and gilts), about 24 kg body weight, were fed three diets: a control diet containing corn-soybean meal with minerals and vitamins added (Diet 0), the same diet in which naked oats (Avena nuda L. 'Tibor') replaced approximately 50% of the corn and soybean meal (Diet 50) and a diet containing 95.4% naked oats plus the mineral and vitamin supplements (Diet 100). The diets were pelleted and given ad libitum to the pigs which were penned individually until marketed at 90 ± 5 kg bodyweight. The left side of the carcass was used for carcass quality determinations, meat quality (sensory evaluation) assessment and backfat samples for fatty acid analysis. Eighteen other Yorkshire pigs were used in metabolism trials to determine digestible and metabolizable energy and nitrogen values and nitrogen balances when fed the three test diets. Energy values for urine were determined with freeze-dried samples combusted in polyethylene bags using an adiabatic bomb calorimeter. The diets (DM...