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Protein question

Posted: Mon Jul 22, 2019 8:07 am
by Buckeye1002
When talking about a pig that weighs around 200lbs. Does higher protein or lower protein feed help to raise average daily gain? Been told both ways here lately.

Re: Protein question

Posted: Tue Jul 23, 2019 12:36 pm
by kgb
Protein is not responsible for daily gain, energy (calories) is responsible. Protein or more importantly lysine and other essential amino acids influence the composition of that growth (muscle to fat ratio).

Pig feeds in the U.S. are normally composed of corn and soybean meal. Showpig feeds may contain fish, milk, eggs, whey etc... (like the Honor Show Chow feeds do 😬).

But, most of the feeds are corn and soybean meal. Corn contains more energy than soybean meal. So, usually when going down in protein, more corn comes into the formula increasing the energy slightly. The biggest influence or contributor of energy is fat. So as fat goes up normally so does the energy density of the feed, unless fiber goes up as well.

Bottom line is looking at the tag only tells you so much.