ABSTRACT


Marco Antonio Esnaola L.1, Oriella Romero Y.2 y Juan Guillermo Rosa W.2
 
Two feeding trials were carried out in order to study the effect of different levels of ground peas (GP) in the diets, on the performance and carcass characteristics of growing-finishing pigs. In each experiment 50 pigs, weighing on average 28 Kg, were allocated to sex, weight and litter origin to 5 experimental groups of 10 pigs each. These experimental groups were randomly assigned to the following treatment: I.- Diet based on barley-fish meal. Control diet; II.- Diet with 10% GP; III.- Diet with 20% GP; IV.- Diet with 30% GP; V.- Diet with 40% GP. The diets from the control groups were made up with 15% crude protein up to 55 Kg and 13% crude protein from 55 Kg to 100 Kg liveweight. With each level of GP, the amount of fish meal in the diet was reduced. In experiment I, cull-graded green peas, containing 25.3% crude protein, were used. In experiment 2 good graded white-yellowish peas containing 18.1% crude protein, were used.
The results in both experiments indicate that levels of 10 - 20 - 30 - 40% GP did not affect significantly, daily gains, feed intakes, feed conversion ratio an carcass characteristics. According to the crude protein content of peas, 30 to 40% GP can totally replace fish meal, without detrimental effects. It was concluded that dried green cull-graded or white-yellowish peas are very good feed for growing-finishing pigs, that can be included in the diets up to a level of 40% without problems.
Key words:
1Ing. Agr., Ph. D., Programa Producción Porcina, Estación Experimental Carillanca, Instituto de Investigación Agropecuarias (INIA), Casilla 58-D, Temuco, Chile. Actualmente: Universidad Católica de Valparaiso, Casilla 4, Quillota, Chile.
2Ing. Agr., e Ing. Agr., M. S., Programa Producción Porcina, Estación Experimental Carillanca, Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias (INIA), Casilla 58-D, Temuco, Chile.