Abstract A total of 395 weanling pigs (DNA 241 × 600; initially 5.8 kg) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial experiment with main effects of a previous sow lactation addition of a cheese co-product (none or 4% Pro-88, Key Manufacturing, Paris, IL) and the cheese co-product in nursery diets (none or 4%) on growth performance of nursery pigs in a 35-d trial. Pigs were placed in pens (5 pigs per pen) within sow treatment and were randomly assigned to one of two dietary nursery treatments. There were 19 to 21 replications per treatment due to the number of pigs available from each of the two lactation diet treatments. Nursery treatments were fed in phases 1 and 2 followed by a common diet fed to all pigs in phase 3. The cheese co-product was added at the expense of enzymatically treated soybean meal in the nursery diets. No sow × nursery interactions (P 0.10) were observed during the study. There were no differences observed (P 0.10) in overall weaning weight during the lactation portion of the trial. However, offspring from sows fed cheese co-product in the third farrowing group, which is the group followed into the nursery, were heavier (P 0.001) at weaning than those not fed cheese co-product, and this weight advantage was maintained throughout the study. There was a tendency (P = 0.058) for fewer pigs fed the cheese co-product in the nursery to lose body weight from d 0 to 3 after weaning, regardless of previous sow treatment. During the experimental period (d 0 to 21 post-weaning), pigs weaned from sows fed the cheese co-product tended to have increased (P = 0.088) gain-to-feed ratio (G:F), leading to a tendency for increased (P = 0.062) overall (d 0 to 35) G:F. There were no effects (P 0.10) on ADG or ADFI due to previous sow treatment. During the experimental period, feeding the cheese co-product in nursery diets improved (P = 0.007) G:F compared to pigs fed the control diet, resulting in an increase (P = 0.028) in overall G:F. In conclusion, feeding a cheese co-product either in lactation or early nursery diets improved feed efficiency of pigs throughout the nursery period.
Privett et al. (Wed,) studied this question.