Abstract
These experiments were conducted to investigate the effects of different feeding and processing methods of diets on performance, morphological changes in the small intestine and nutrient digestibility of growing-finishing pigs. One-hundred fifty growing pigs ($Yorkshire{\times}Landrace{\times}Duroc$; initial body weight of $23.33{\pm}0.75kg$) and one-hundred twenty finishing pigs ($Yorkshire{\times}Landrace{\times}Duroc$; initial body weight of $59.22{\pm}0.56kg$) were used in Exp. 1 and Exp. 2, respectively. Pigs were grouped on the basis of body weight and gender, and randomly allotted into 6 different treatments with 5 replications in each treatment in a $2{\times}3$ factorial arrangement. Treatments were 1) dry feeding with a mash diet (DM), 2) dry feeding with a pelleted diet (DP), 3) dry feeding with an expanded crumble diet (DEC), 4) dry/wet feeding with a mash diet (WM), 5) dry/wet feeding with a pelleted diet (WP), and 6) dry/wet feeding with an expanded crumble diet (WEC). In Exp. 1 (growing phase), there was no significant difference in average daily gain (ADG) and average daily feed intake (ADFI) among treatments during the entire experimental period, but feed conversion ratio (FCR) was significantly (p<0.05) improved in pigs fed pelleted diets regardless of feeding method. FCR was best in pigs fed a DP diet and worst in pigs fed a WM diet. Pigs fed a pelleted diet showed a 6.2% or 4.0% improvement in FCR compared with those fed a mash diet or an expanded crumble diet. Water disappearance was not significantly affected by dry/wet feeding or feed processing. Significant differences in villus height were not found among treatments, but villus height tended to be improved by dry/wet feeding. Dry/wet feeding or feed processing did not affect crypt depth. Digestibilities of calcium and phosphorus were significantly (p<0.05) improved in pigs fed an expanded crumble diet compared with pigs fed mash diets. Especially, pigs fed a WEC diet digested 8.1% more P than those fed a DM diet. Feed cost per kg weight gain (FCG) tended to be increased by dry/wet feeding rather than dry feeding. In Exp. 2 (finishing phase), ADG and ADFI were not significantly different among treatments, but a significant difference in FCR was found among feed processing forms. The best FCR was obtained in pigs fed a pelleted diet. Pigs fed a DP diet showed a 11.3% improvement compared with those fed a DEC diet. Water disappearance was significantly (p=0.0408) decreased by feeding the mash diet. However, water disappearance was not affected by dry/wet feeding during the finishing period. The villus height and crypt depth were not significantly different among treatments. However, crypt depth tended to be decreased by dry/wet feeding at the mid part of the small intestine. Fat digestibility was improved by dry feeding rather than dry/wet feeding, and was improved by 4.8% by feeding pellet diets compared with expanded crumble diets. Except for carcass grade, carcass characteristics were not significantly (p<0.05) different among treatments. Carcass grade was the best in pigs fed a WP diet. Feed cost per kg weight gain (FCG) was significantly decreased in pigs fed a pelleted diet compared with those fed an expanded crumble diet, and tended to be decreased by dry/wet feeding. In conclusion, these studies suggest that feeding the pelleted diet to growing-finishing pigs can be beneficial in terms of FCR and production cost. Dry/wet feeding can be helpful for the maintenance of villus height, but may not be reflected in improved growth performance or reduction of production costs.