Growth performance and carcass characteristics of pigs fed short-season corn hybrids

An experiment was conducted to determine growth performance, carcass characteristics, and fat quality of growing-finishing pigs fed diets based on short-season corn hybrids. Twenty-four individually housed, Cotswold, growing pigs with an initial BW of 41.4 (SD = 1.4) kg were blocked by BW and sex and randomly allotted from within block to 1 of 3 diets to give 8 replicate pigs per diet. Experimental diets consisted of a control based on barley and 2 diets based on corn as the main energy sources. A 3-phase feeding program for 20 to 50 kg (phase I), 50 to 80 kg (phase II), and 80 to 110 kg (phase III) of BW was used. Diets for each phase contained approximately 3.5 Mcal/kg of DE, with total lysine of 0.95, 0.75, and 0.64% in phase I, II, and III diets, respectively. Average daily gain, ADFI, and G:F were monitored weekly during each phase. Pigs were slaughtered after reaching a minimum BW of 100 kg to determine carcass characteristics. There were no effects of diet on ADG, ADFI, and G:F (0.45 ± 0.02, 0.34 ± 0.02, and 0.31 ± 0.02 for phase I, II, and III, respectively). Carcass length, dressing percent, LM area, loin depth, backfat thickness, belly firmness, and L*, b*, and a* fat color were not different across dietary treatments. Pigs fed one corn variety had no differences in fatty acid profile with barley-fed pigs, whereas those fed the other variety of corn had a greater (P < 0.05) concentration of PUFA in their backfat. The results indicate that growth performance, carcass characteristics, and fat quality of pigs fed diets based on short-season corn hybrids and those fed the barley-based diet were not different.