How to formulate pig diets? These principles must be mastered

  The purpose of establishing feeding standards is to implement standardized feeding for pigs, that is, the feed used for feeding should meet the nutritional needs of specific pig herds. Through diet formulas, pigs can be provided with nutritionally complete full-price diets, giving full play to pigs' production potential and improving feed utilization rate. The following basic principles should be followed when formulating pig diets:

Pictured: live pigs

  1. The nutrient concentration of the diet, especially the energy concentration (digestible energy per kilogram in kilojoules or megajoules) and the energy-protein ratio (the ratio of digestible energy to crude protein in the diet), should meet the nutritional needs of pigs. The diet should fully satisfy the pigs' needs for minerals, vitamins, amino acids and trace elements.

  2. The formulated diet should conform to the physiological characteristics of pigs. Pigs are omnivores and have poor ability to utilize crude fiber, so the diet should not contain large amounts of fibrous feed.

  3. The feed volume and dry matter content should conform to the capacity of the pig's digestive tract. The air-dry matter intake of pigs (as a percentage of body weight) is roughly as follows: pregnant sows 2.0-2.5, lactating sows 3.2-4.0, breeding boars 1.5-2.0, growing-finishing pigs below 50 kg body weight 4.4-6.5, and those above 50 kg 3.8-4.4.

  4. The diet should be composed of as many kinds of feed as possible, so that the various feeds in the diet can nutritionally complement each other, thereby improving the completeness and utilization rate of the feed.

  4. The diet combination should be appropriate, that is, the determined amounts of various feeds should not cause adverse effects on the health, production performance and meat quality of pigs, and attention should also be paid to improving the palatability of the diet. Ensure that the feed is fresh in texture and good in quality, reduce impurities, and eliminate toxic and harmful substances from the feed to ensure the safety of pigs.

  5. Cost accounting should be carried out for the diet, and feeds with higher nutritional value and lower prices should be selected as much as possible to compose the diet, so as to reduce feeding costs and improve production efficiency and economic benefits.