CHOICE FEEDING EXPERIMENTS WITH PIGS IN C ONSIDERATION OF ITS APPLICATION IN STATIONARY PERFORMANCE TESTING

The aim of the present investigations was to study the possibilities o f application of choice feeding in stationary performance testing of p igs. The experimental basis of the investigations includes two multifa ctorial, balanced feeding trials with 64 crossbred (Pi x DLS resp. DE x DLS) in each trial. The influence of origin, sex and composition of diets on the ability of individually housed pigs for diet selection ap propriate to the actual requirements, especially in protein, was teste d in different treatments in the course of the fattening period from 3 0 kg to 105 kg live weight. The following results were obtained: The m ost important causes for optimal diet selection under the condition of isoenergetic diets seem to be the crude protein concentration and the difference in crude protein content between the two diets in choice. The difference in crude protein should be about 10%. The capacity of f ood intake in female pigs is lower than in castrated males, while prot ein deposition and lean meat content in females are appreciably higher . For these reasons female pigs prefer a higher crude protein concentr ation in the total diet. The study of the influence of lean meat depos ition of the pigs by classification in meat content the relations betw een daily gain and feed intake and otherwise between the meat yield an d crude protein intake became evident. In conclusion of the achieved r esults choice feeding may be regarded as an advantageous feeding techn ique in stationary performance testing, because the pigs with a higher protein deposition rate and a lower feed intake capacity are able to choose the more appropriated diet with a higher protein concentration. In addition the system of choice feeding may offer economical and eco logical advantages.