Comparison of a range of NE systems with data obtained from slaughter balance studies on 8-12 week old pigs

• Published in: Proceedings of the British Society of Animal Science Vol. 1998; p. 154
• Main Authors: Beattie, V.E., Weatherup, R.N., McCracken, K.J., McIlroy, S.G., Henry, R.W.
• Format: Journal Article
• Language: English
• Published: 1998
• ISSN: 1752-7562; 1752-7570
• DOI: 10.1017/S0308229600033675

The gross energy of any pig feed is not completely available to the animal with losses occurring in faeces, urine, methane and heat. The NE system of feed evaluation should be more accurate in predicting animal performance since it takes into account these energy losses and the metabolic utilisation of energy. The NE system ascribes a relatively higher value to energy from fat and a lower value to energy from protein sources than the DE system. One method of deriving NE is to multiply DE by a factor of 0.71 (Noblet, 1996a). A wide range of more complex NE systems are currently in use involving individual feed ingredient data collected at various European research centres. This study was designed to compare a range of NE systems with data obtained from slaughter balance studies on 8-12 week old pigs using a range of diets for growing pigs differing in CP and DE levels.