In poultry, the particle size of inorganic calcium sources has been shown to affect calcium retention and eggshell quality. However, little is known about the effect of particle size of inorganic calcium fed to pigs. Results of a previous experiment conducted in the Stein Monogastric Nutrition Lab indicated that calcium digestibility and retention were not affected by the particle size of supplemental calcium carbonate. A follow-up study was conducted to test the hypothesis that calcium carbonate particle does not affect growth performance by weanling pigs.

Materials and methods

A total of 128 weanling pigs with an average initial body weight of approximately 9.6 kg were randomly allotted to 4 experimental diets. The diets were based on corn and soybean meal, and calcium carbonate was added to bring the diets to approximately 0.70% total calcium. The calcium carbonate was ground to 4 different particle sizes (approximately 200, 500, 700, and 1125 microns).

Pigs were weighed on the first and last days of the 21-day experiment. Daily feed allotments and feed left in the feeders were recorded to calculate the pigs' average daily feed intake, average daily gain and gain:feed ratio for the experimental period.

Results

The results of the experiment are summarized in Table 1. No differences were observed in average daily feed intake, average daily gain, or gain:feed ratio among pigs fed calcium ground to different particle sizes.

Table 1. Growth performance of pigs fed diets containing calcium carbonate ground to different particle sizes.This report is based on unpublished research by Laura A. Merriman and Hans H. Stein.

This report is based on unpublished research by Laura A. Merriman and Hans H. Stein.