Increasing the inclusion of dietary fiber in nursery pig diets may stimulate beneficial gut microbiota and reduce post-weaning diarrhea. However, the digestibility of nutrients and energy is decreased in high fiber diets. Nursery pigs fed diets high in fiber have been shown to have reduced ADFI and G:F.

Bacillus-based direct-fed microbials (DFM) secrete a large amount and a wide variety of fiber degrading enzymes. It is thought that feeding DFM may offset some of the negative effects of  a high fiber diet. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that addition of a Bacillus-based DFM will increase fermentation of dietary fiber and improve growth performance when fed to nursery pigs.

Boler, D. D., M. F. Overholt, J. E. Lowell, A. C. Dilger, and H. H. Stein. 2015. Effects of pelleting growing-finishing swine diets on growth, carcass, and bacon characteristics. Pages 23-30 in Proc. Midwest Swine Nutr. Conf. Indianapolis, IN, Sep. 10, 2015. Link to full text (.pdf)

It is important to include calcium and phosphorus in the diets in the proper proportions because the excess or deficiency of one mineral may affect the utilization of the other. Calcium requirements in the 2012 NRC are based on a model, which used a 2.15 ratio of total calcium to standardized total tract digestible (STTD) phosphorus. An optimal ratio of STTD calcium to STTD phosphorus has not been reported because not enough data exist on the standardized total tract digestibility of calcium. However, recent studies conducted by the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Lab have determined values for STTD calcium for several calcium sources. With these data, it is possible to determine the requirement for STTD calcium. Therefore, an experiment was conducted to determine the requirement of STTD calcium to maximize growth performance and bone ash in 11 to 25 kg pigs.

Jaworski, N. W., A. Owusu-Asiedu, A. Awati, A. Thomas, and H. H. Stein. 2015. Effect of a 3-strain Bacillus-based direct-fed microbial on growth performance, volatile fatty acid production, carcass characteristics, and gastrointestinal tract weights in growing-finishing pigs fed low or high fiber diets. J. Anim. Sci. 93(Suppl. s3):856 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Parr, C. K., Y. Liu, C. M. Parsons, and H. H. Stein. 2015. Effects of high-protein or conventional canola meal on growth performance, organ weights, bone ash, and blood characteristics of weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 93:2165-2173. Link to full text (.pdf)

Overholt, M. F., J. E. Lowell, I. M. Grossman, H. H. Stein, A. C. Dilger, and D. D. Boler. 2015. Effects of diet form and distillers dried grains with solubles (DDGS) on growth performance, carcass characteristics, and visceral weights of growing-finishing pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 93(Suppl. 2):186-187 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Liu, Y., T. Maison, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Performance of pigs fed diets containing canola meal produced from high protein or conventional varieties of canola seeds. J. Anim. Sci 92(E-Suppl. 2):225-6 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)

Kim, B. G., D. M. Wulf, R. J. Maddock, D. N. Peters, C. Pedersen, Y. Liu, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Effects of dietary barley on growth performance, carcass traits and pork quality of finishing pigs. Rev. Colomb. Cienc. Pecu. 27:102-113. Link to full text

Parr, C. K., Y. Liu, C. M. Parsons, and H. H. Stein. 2014. Effects of high-protein canola meals fed to weanling pigs on growth performance, organ weights, bone ash, and blood parameters. J. Anim. Sci. 92(Suppl. 2):61-62 (Abstr.) Link to abstract (.pdf)