Effect of long-term feeding and dry or liquid feeding on the use of rapeseed meal in pig diets

In Experiment 1, the effect of rapeseed meal incorporation (0 or 10%) in sow and/or pig diets was studied in two batches of growing pigs. No significant dietary effect was observed on ADG, FCR or carcass leanness. No interaction was observed between the diet allocated to the sows or to the pigs. In Experiment 2, all pigs were obtained from sows fed diets containing 10% rapeseed meal. The piglets were fed a phase 2 diet containing rapeseed meal at 12% then allocated to one of two experimental diets that contained 15% rapeseed meal or 0% for the growing-finishing period. Even with higher rapeseed meal inclusion rates, no cumulative effect attributable to the rapeseed meal was observed on growth performance or carcass characteristics. In Experiment 3, pigs received a diet containing 8% or 18% rapeseed meal, provided as mash either through a liquid feeding system or through dry meal hoppers. No significant difference on the performance for ADFI, ADG and carcass leanness was observed between the two diets, regardless of feeding system used. The results of these experiments suggest that regular rapeseed meal could be fed in all stages of production without any effect on performance and carcass quality. Our recommendations for the maximum incorporation rates would be 10% in sow diets, 12% in phase 2 diets, and 18% in growing-finishing diets, which corresponds to less than 5 mmoles of glucosinolates intake per day both during the gestation and the fattening periods.