Table 8.

Effect of incremental dietary energy density during late gestation and lactation on pig age and carcass quality at slaughter, carcass ADG, carcass FCE, and carcass lean ADG

Dietary treatment	LL	L	H	HH
MJ DE/kg	13.8	14.5	15.2	15.9	SEM	P-value1
Number of pigs	76	68	70	73
Age at slaughter	141.3a	140.9b	141.0b	141.0b	0.05	<0.001
Live-weight at slaughter, kg	103.1	103.1	105.3	102.2	1.20	0.32
Carcass measures1
Weight, kg	76.1	76.1	77.5	75.7	0.93	0.55
Fat depth, mm	12.2	11.9	11.7	11.9	0.23	0.36
Muscle, mm	43.4	43.4	43.5	43.2	0.55	0.97
Lean meat, %	56.3	56.7	56.7	56.6	0.21	0.43
Kill out, %	73.7	73.7	73.3	73.7	0.22	0.53
Carcass ADG, g/d2	912	916	925	903	11.4	0.62
Carcass FCE, g/g3	2.64	2.61	2.60	2.63	0.019	0.55
Lean ADG, g/d4	303	306	311	303	3.7	0.42

ADG, average daily gain; FCE, feed conversion efficiency.

¹Treatements with different superscript letters within a row are considered significantly different at P < 0.05 and as tendencies at P > 0.05 but less than P < 0.10. Carcass cold weight at slaughter was used as a covariate for the analysis of carcass fat depth, muscle depth, and lean meat yield.

²Carcass ADG (from day 75 to slaughter) = [(carcass weight in kg – day 75 weight in kg × 0.65) × 1,000/number of days from day 75 to slaughter] (Lawlor and Lynch, 2005).

³Carcass FCE (from day 75 to slaughter) = [daily feed intake (g)/carcass ADG (g)].

⁴Lean ADG (from birth to slaughter) = [(carcass weight × carcass lean meat percentage × 10)/number of days to slaughter] (Lawlor and Lynch, 2005).