Triticale Performs in Pig Feeds

Approximately 50,000 hectares (123,555 acres) of triticale are grown in western Canada at present. This amount is just a beginning when compared to countries like China, Poland, Australia, Germany and France, where hectares grown are 690,000, 615,000, 221,000, 288,000 and 183,000, respectively.

Many grain growing areas of Alberta are suitable for triticale production, and yields of various varieties have exceeded that of wheat in some instances. Triticale is expected to thrive in some of the drier areas of south-eastern Alberta where winter seeding is practised.

New Varieties

Alberta-grown triticale is being used in certain swine feeds with great success. This success is because of the good palatability and nutritional value of modern varieties. Dr. Don Salmon, triticale breeder for Alberta Agriculture, explains that the modern varieties are of a new generation of improved triticale (X Triticosecale Wittmack L.) and have more characteristics of the wheat parent than the rye parent. This mix affects their good palatability and lack of anti-nutritive factors for livestock. These varieties have also been selected for high energy content. Consequently, feed intake on triticale diets is comparable to that of wheat or hulless barley diets, and pigs do just as well in growth rate and other important economic performance traits.

Laboratory Analysis

Based on laboratory analyses, the nutritional value of triticale compares well with wheat and barley. The important nutrients for monogastric animals like pigs and poultry are protein, amino acids and digestible energy. In 1998, I collected about 400 samples of triticale that were grown in research plots around Alberta and had laboratory analyses done for protein and amino acids. The results were compared with similar analyses of locally grown wheat and barley done the previous year. Here are the results:

Comparison of triticale with wheat and barley for some essential amino acids (dry matter basis).

	Triticale	Wheat	Hulless Barley	Hulled Barley
Protein %	14.00	14.40	15.91	13.87
Lysine %	0.41	0.39	0.51	0.47
Threonine %	0.41	0.43	0.49	0.45
Methionine %	0.19	0.22	0.26	0.21
Tryptophan %	0.21	0.24	0.24	0.23

The above figures are all reported on dry matter analyses. Triticale protein and amino acids compare well with wheat. However, barley protein has higher lysine and threonine than either wheat or triticale, which is an important consideration for use in pig feeds.

Experimental Results

In 1997, we did two experiments at the University of Alberta Swine Research Farm in which we fed cleaned Pronghorn triticale to weaner pigs and market hogs. The weaner experiment was designed to measure their growth performance and to find out to what extent wheat may be replaced by triticale in those (weaner) diets. The market hog experiment was designed to determine how well market hogs performed on triticale diets as compared to other hogs in the same experiment that were fed wheat or corn diets. Carcass quality and meat characteristics of the market hogs were also studied by Wayne Robertson, who is a meat quality researcher at the Lacombe Research Station. The results of these studies were very positive for triticale.

In the weaner experiment, four-week old piglets were fed diets made up with either wheat, triticale or half wheat and half triticale. Pigs on the half and half diet ate as much and grew as fast as those on the wheat diet. However, on the all- triticale diet, pigs ate slightly less and grew slightly more slowly. Therefore, for weaner diets, the present recommendation is to use no more than half triticale and half wheat to make up the cereal portion of the diet.

In the grower feeding experiment, triticale was used to replace wheat, corn or hulless barley in a three-stage feeding program to pigs from 20 kg to a market weight of 110 kg. A pre-grower diet with 17 per cent protein and 0.90 per cent lysine was fed to pigs between 20 and 50 kg. A 16 per cent grower (0.80 per cent lysine) was fed between 50 and 80 kg, and the 15 per cent finisher (0.70 per cent lysine) was fed from 80 kg to market weight of 110 kg. Pigs were weighed at the start of the experiment and weekly thereafter to determine growth rate. Feed was weighed and offered to pigs in self feeders ad lib, and average daily feed intake was calculated weekly.

The results are in the following table. Pigs on all three diets ate about the same, grew equally fast and had similar feed conversion efficiency. This result proved that growing pigs were able to utilize the nutrients in triticale with the same efficiency as hulless barley or corn. It also implied that the energy and protein quality in triticale were at least as high as hulless barley or corn. With respect to carcass quality, it was found that the corn and the triticale/hulless barley diets produced pigs with significantly higher backfat than the barley or triticale diets and about one per cent less estimated lean yield. Consequently, average grade index on the corn fed pigs was 106.5 and the barley and triticale pigs was 109.5.

Performance characteristics of pigs (27-110 kg) fed diets with various cereals

Treatment	Average Daily Feed Intake (Kg)	Average Daily Gain (Grams)	Feed Efficiency (F/G)	Grade Index
Corn	2.50	885	2.85	106.5
Hulless Barley	2.53	915	2.87	109.2
Triticale	2.50	899	2.81	109.6
Hulless barley and triticale 1:1	2.66	935	2.86	106.4

Conclusion

The conclusion from this study was that triticale can completely replace barley or wheat in the diets of market pigs. As for sows, it can be extrapolated that these sows can use triticale in nursing diets to great advantage. It appears that triticale can be valued in a manner similar to hulless barley or wheat. Differences in protein content will affect the price.

Sam Jaikaran MSc.
P.Ag.Swine Nutritionist, Edmonton

Contact Information: Phone 780-427-4567 Fax 780-427-1057
email: eduardo.beltranena@gov.ab.ca