The performance of growing pigs fed with soybeans, peas and rapeseed meal grown in Central Europe

The effect of diets based on soybeans, peas and rapeseed meal grown in crop systems of the European Union on pig performance and carcass characteristics was evaluated as compared to diets on basis of imported soybean meal. 125 barrows and 125 gilts were used to estimate the effect of the different diets. 13.3 MJ metabolizable energy and 9.10 g standardized ileal digestible lysine (sid-lysine) per kg feed were calculated for the starter diets and 12.8 MJ metabolizable energy and 7.96 g sid-lysine per kg feed were calculated for the finisher diets. The diets were formulated to meet a ratio of sid-lysine to energy of 0.68 in the starter diets and 0.62 in the finisher diets respectively. No effect of the diets on feed intake and growth performance could be detected neither in barrows or in gilts. For both sexes a higher intramuscular fat content was found, when feeding the diets based on soybeans, peas and rapeseed meal grown in Central Europe as compared to the diets supplemented with imported soybean meal. In gilts muscle depth and lean content showed higher values for the animals fed with imported soybean meal as compared to the protein sources from Central Europe. The diets containing the protein sources from Central Europe were supplemented with lysine, methionine, cysteine and tryptophane. They showed a lower content of crude protein as compared to the conventional diets. Authors conclude that amino acids which were not supplemented became limiting for protein deposition and the intramuscular fat content increased.