A comparison of wheat and fine wheat offal in the rations of fattening pigs

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Abstract
1. A co-ordinated trial has been carried out at twenty-two centres to compare the value of wheat, crushed or ground, with that of fine wheat offal (weatings) when fed in equal amounts in the rations of growing pigs.2. Pigs fed the wheat rations grew faster (8·7% improvement for crushed wheat, 6·3% for ground), had. more efficient food conversion (9·0 and 6·5%) and yielded heavier carcasses for a given final live weight (1·4 and 1·3%) than pigs fed weatings but were fatter at the shoulder (5·6 and 7·5%) and the loin (11·2 and 13·1%); all these effects were highly significant. Differences in length of carcass were not significant.3. Improvements in growth rate and food conversion were significantly greater with crushed wheat than with ground wheat. None of the other differences between crushed wheat and ground wheat was significant.4. An economic appraisal has been made which shows that, on the basis of certain assumptions, the feeding of wheat would have resulted in higher profit per year than the feeding of weatings under the price structure and system of grading prevailing during the period of the experiment.5. Changes in the price structure (average price of bacon pigs, differentials between grades and cost of wheat and weatings), in the average quality of the carcasses (length of the carcass and fat at the shoulder and loin) and in the size of treatment effects on food conversion, all have a substantial effect on relative profits. The appraisal suggests, however, that feeding wheat would be more profitable than feeding weatings when the above changes were extremely severe.

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