Comparison of Triticale with Corn and Hulless Barley in Swine Diets

S. Jaikaran¹, W.M. Robertson², D.F. Salmon³ and F.X. Aherne¹

¹Alberta Pork Research Centre, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, 9^th Floor, OS Longman Building, 6909 - 116 Street, Edmonton, AB, Canada, T6H 4P2

²Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Station, Lacombe, Alberta, Canada, T4L 1W1

³Field crop development centre, Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development, 5030-50St, Lacombe AB, Canada, T4L 1W8

Several new varieties of triticale are being developed and grown in Alberta and are now available for livestock feed. Triticale is a high energy, high protein cereal grain, similar to hulless barley and is suitable for feeding to pigs. Unfortunately, there is no current swine performance data to provide directions for feeding today's new varieties. Therefore, this experiment was conducted to compare performance of hogs fed diets based on corn, hulless barley (var. Falcon), triticale (var. Pronghorn) and a 50:50 mixture of hulless barley and triticale. The feeding period was divided into three phases, 30-55 kg, 55-80 kg and 80-110 kg liveweight. Different dietary specifications were used in each phase to closely match requirements of the pigs. The digestible energy (DE) of the corn diets were higher by 150, 120 and 175 kcals than the other diets in phases 1, 2, and 3 respectively. The barley and triticale diets within each phase were equalized for DE and lysine. The ratio of DE to lysine and sulfur amino acids were made the same for all four diets in each phase.

The overall performance results are shown in the table below. There were no significant differences (P<0.05) in average daily gain (ADG), average daily feed intake (ADFI) and feed efficiency (F/G) among treatments groups during each period and for the overall period. Barrows maintained a higher ADFI and ADG than gilts.

Performance of market hogs (25-110kg) with corn, hulless barley, triticale and 50:50 triticale in the diet.

Animal Performance	Cereal used in diet
	Corn	Barley	Triticale	Barley-Triticale
ADG kg/day	0.885	0.912	0.899	0.935
ADFI kg/day	2.5	2.53	2.5	2.66
Feed/gain	2.85	2.88	2.81	2.86

Implication: Pronghorn triticale allowed market hogs to perform as well as corn or hulless barley based diets. Newer varieties are palatable and suitable feedgrains for market hogs at even the total replacement level for other grains.