Palm kernel meal is a coproduct of the production of palm kernel oil. Although the amino acid profile and digestibility in palm kernel meal are less favorable than in soybean meal, it can provide significant protein in swine diets and may be used to reduce feed costs.

An experiment was conducted to test the hypothesis that palm kernel meal may replace some corn and soybean meal in phase 2 diets fed to weanling pigs without negatively affecting growth performance.

A total of 160 pigs were weaned at approximately 20 days of age. All pigs were fed a common phase 1 diet for 12 days post-weaning, and they were then randomly allotted to four treatment groups, with five pigs per pen and eight replicate pens per treatment. Pigs had an average body weight of 8.41 kg at the start of the experiment. Four phase 2 diets were formulated (Table 1). The basal diet was based on corn and soybean meal, 4% fish meal, and no palm kernel meal. Three additional diets were formulated by including 5, 10, or 15% palm kernel meal to the diets at the expense of corn and soybean meal.

Individual pig body weight was recorded at the start of the experiment, after 10 days, and at the conclusion of the trial after 21 days. Daily feed allotments and unconsumed feed were also recorded. From these data, average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and average gain to feed ratio were calculated for each treatment group.

Body weight at day 10 showed a linear decrease  (P < 0.05) as the concentration of palm kernel meal in the diet was increased (Table 2). However, by day 21, no significant difference in body weight was observed among pigs fed the experimental diets. Average daily gain and gain to feed ratio during the first ten days also showed a linear decrease  (P < 0.05) as the concentration of palm kernel meal in the diet was increased, whereas average daily gain and gain:feed from days 11 to 21 and from days 0 to 21 were not affected by increasing palm kernel meal inclusion. Average daily feed intake was not affected by the amount of palm kernel meal in the diet at any stage. This indicates that there were no palatability problems with the diets containing palm kernel meal but because of a reduced concentration of ME in palm kernel meal than in corn and soybean meal, pigs fed diets containing palm kernel meal were not able to consume enough energy to maintain the same growth rate during the initial 10 days of the experiment as pigs fed the control diet without palm kernel meal.

• Body weight, average daily gain, and gain to feed ratio declined during the first 10 days of phase 2 as more palm kernel meal was added to the diet. However, by day 21, no significant differences were observed among diets on any measure of growth performance.
• Up to 15% palm kernel meal can be fed to weanling pigs, replacing corn and soybean meal, without affecting overall growth performance.

Table 1. Nutrient composition of experimental diets containing 0, 5%, 10%, or 15% palm kernel meal (PKM)

Table 2. Growth performance of nursery pigs fed diets containing 0, 5%, 10%, or 15% palm kernel meal (PKM)

This report is based on unpublished data by J. Shoulders and H. H. Stein.