A researcher with the Prairie Swine Centre is encouraging pork producers to consider a variety of feeding strategies designed to reduce the need for the inclusion of supplemental phosphorus in the diet.
Phosphorus is vital for the formation of muscle and bone and in many enzyme reactions required for growth but excess phosphorus excreted in manure is an environmental concern.
Dr. Denise Beaulieu, a research Scientist with the Prairie Swine Centre in Saskatoon, says by matching the amount of phosphorus in the diet more closely to the pig’s requirements less phosphorus will be excreted in the manure.
Phosphorus is found in cereal grains and in cereal grain byproducts and in oilseed meal byproducts.
However the concern is that in a plant form most of the phosphorus is in the form of the phytate molecule.
That is it’s attached to another molecule and in the pig, like in most mongastrics, they are not able to use it in this form.
Because the pig is unable to break off the phosphorus from this phytate molecule it is unable to absorb it into its GI tract so any phosphorus that is attached to the phytate molecule will be excreted in the manure.
The other source of phosphorus in the manure is if we over feed the pig phosphorus.
Typically in formulating swine diets we add the phosphorus in an inorganic, that’s a mineral form of the phosphorus to the diet.
That would be something like dicalcium phosphorus.
It’s like a rock form of phosphorus.
Dr. Beaulieu says feeding low phytate grains, such as the low phytate barley developed by the University of Saskatchewan, or by adding an enzyme that breaks down the phytate in the grain will allow the pigs to better utilize the plant based phosphorus.
She says, because phosphorus requirements vary according to sex and change as the pigs age, formulating different rations for male and female pigs and according to stage of development will also reduce the amount of excess phosphorus in the diet.
Source: Farmscape.Ca
