56 J
.V. O’Doherty, M.P. McKeon Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55 –65
21
ences in residual oil content. As a result of this, the copra, T2 control diet 800 g kg
plus 200 g
21 21
residual ingredient left is moderately high in oil copra meal kg
and T3 control diet 600 g kg
21 21
90–160 g kg .
plus 400 g copra meal kg . The copra meal used
Copra meal could make a significant contribution was a commercially produced expeller meal im-
to the protein requirements of pigs with a crude ported from Indonesia and its chemical composition
21
protein content of around 200 g kg . However,
is given in Table 1. Details of the digestibility diets Thorne et al. 1990 showed the amino acid balance
are also shown in Table 1. The nutrient digestibility of copra meal protein to be far from ideal with lysine
of the copra meal component was calculated by the being particularly deficient. Thorne et al. 1990
difference method using the control treatment T1 stated that poor digestibility and an imbalance of
as a basal diet and assuming that the remainder of essential amino acids in copra meal protein probably
the diet was unchanged. When formulating the 200 g
21
result in copra meal contributing little more to the and 400 g copra meal kg
diets, all ingredients pig’s protein requirement than do dietary cereals.
present in the control diet were reduced by 20 and Thorne et al. 1988 found that there was a linear
40, respectively in order to calculate the nutrient reduction in daily gain as the level of copra meal in
digestibility of the copra meal component by the the diet increased. However, attention to the dietary
difference method. amino acid balance may improve performance.
The pigs were randomly allocated to the three Thorne et al. 1992 maintained the ideal amino acid
treatments and housed in metabolism cages fitted balance with the use of synthetic amino acids at
with urine and faeces separators for the duration of different copra meal inclusion levels and found that
two collection periods. The first collection period there was a linear reduction in daily gain as the level
occurred during the grower stage 12–14 weeks of of copra meal in the diet increased from 0 to 200
age while the second collection period occurred
21
g kg . However, it should be noted that this experi-
during the finisher stage 16–18 weeks of age. The ment was conducted at 25
8C and this may have cages were located in an environmentally controlled
affected feed intake especially when the pigs were room, maintained at a constant temperature of 24
8C fed high fibre diets.
61.58C. The trial consisted of an initial 10 days Copra meal is a potentially valuable source of
acclimatisation period and a further 10 days during energy for grower and finisher pig diets. However,
which feed intake and faeces output were recorded. with careful diet formulation copra meal may repre-
Food was presented to each animal twice daily in the sent a cheap and valuable source of both dietary
form of a pellet diet with water in the proportion 1:2 energy and protein for pigs. The current study was
w v and restricted to 0.90 of ad libitum intake in the designed to examine the effect of including copra
acclimatisation period. Faeces were collected daily
21
meal in the diet at 100 and 200 g kg , formulated
from each pig and were air-dried before being on either a least cost basis or as a direct substitute for
weighed. barley on the performance of pigs between 40 and 95
kg live weight housed at 18 8C. A further objective
2.2. Performance experiment was to estimate the nutrient digestibility of copra
meal when included in the diet of grower and The experiment was designed as a 2 method of
21
finisher pigs at 200 and 400 g kg .
formulation 3 2 copra meal level factorial plus the
control diet. The pigs were offered diets containing either a control treatment 0 copra meal T1, 100 g
21 21
2. Materials and methods copra meal kg
T2 and 200 g copra meal kg T3 formulated as a direct replacement for barley
21
2.1. Digestibility experiment and 100 g copra meal kg
T4 and 200 g copra
21
meal kg T5 formulated on a least cost basis.
Nine Landrace cross boars of 35 kg live weight Details of the experimental diets are shown in Table
were used. The experiment was designed as a 3 2.
experimental diets 3 2 age of pig factorial. The
In the least cost formulations, the diets were three digestibility diets were T1 control diet 0
formulated using standard feeding values for the
J .V. O’Doherty, M.P. McKeon Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55 –65
57 Table 1
Composition of the digestibility diets and analysed chemical composition of the copra meal and the digestibility diets
21
Copra meal Control
Copra meal g kg 200
400
21
Composition g kg Copra meal
200 400
Barley 408.7
326.9 245.1
Wheat 250
200 150
Soya bean meal 250
200.8 150
Tallow 35
28 21
Molasses 30
24 18
Dicalcium phosphate 4.75
3.0 2.9
Salt 5.1
4.1 3.1
Lime 14.0
11.2 8.4
Mineral and vitamins 2.5
2 1.5
21
Chemical composition g kg Dry matter
882.0 888.0
886.0 883.0
Ash 62.0
60.1 57.6
57.8 Crude protein
205.0 216.9
221.6 223.3
Neutral detergent fibre 493.0
158.1 239.7
336.7 Ether extract
93.0
21
Gross energy MJ kg DM
18.3 18.7
18.8 18.8
21
Lysine g kg 4.8
– –
–
ingredients Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and The pigs were allowed 5 days to acclimatise
Food, 1991 so as to contain similar concentrations before the experiment began. At the beginning of the
of digestible energy DE 13.8 MJ DE and ideal experiment each pig was individually weighed, tag-
21
protein lysine 10 g kg Close, 1994 with syn-
ged and all pigs were balanced across treatments thetic amino acids added where necessary. In the
according to live weight. All pens were weighed least cost formulation, wheat, molasses and soya oil
after 28 days and again 33 days later. Pigs were were included equally. Copra meal replaced barley
removed for slaughter when the average pen weight
21
directly at 100 and 200 g kg in the copra meal
exceeded 95 kg. Growth measurements ended at first substituted barley diets. The diets were prepared in
slaughtering but the pigs continued on their dietary 4.5 mm pellet form and delivered in individually
treatment up to slaughter. Daily carcass gain was identified 25 kg paper bags.
calculated by assuming a 65 kill out percentage for The performance experiment was run over two
the pigs at the start of the experiment as follows: periods. Two hundred and forty entire males
progeny of Landrace 3 Large White sows were
Carcass weight 2 initial weight 3 0.65 num-
used in the first phase November–February of the ber of days
experiment while a replicate run March–June using 120 entire males of identical genotype were used in
the second phase. The pigs were penned in groups of Within 1 h of slaughter, the warm carcass was
2
twelve and were stocked at 0.84 m per pig. The
weighed and subcutaneous back fat and eye muscle house was mechanically ventilated to provide an
depth measurements were taken 6.5 cm from the ambient temperature of 18
8C. Each pen had a solid midline of the split back between the 3rd and 4th last
floor lying area with access to slats at rear. In- ribs using a Hennessy grading probe. Lean meat
dividual single space feeders with water nipples were proportion was estimated from the back fat and eye
present in all pens providing an ad libitum supply of muscle depth measurements using the equation De-
both food and water. partment of Agriculture and Food, 1994:
58 J
.V. O’Doherty, M.P. McKeon Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55 –65 Table 2
Composition and analysed chemical composition of the performance diets T1
T2 T3
T 4 T 5
21
Copra inclusion g kg Control
100 200
100 200
Formulation Barley
Barley Least cost
Least cost
21
Composition g kg Barley
354.3 254.3
154.3 265.0
176.9 Wheat
300.0 300.0
300.0 300.0
300.0 Soya bean hipro
251.0 251.0
251.0 246.9
242.0 Copra meal
100.0 200.0
100.0 200.0
Tallow 30.0
30.0 30.0
24.2 17.3
Molasses 30.0
30.0 30.0
30.0 30.0
Soya oil 10.0
10.0 10.0
10.0 10.0
Salt 3.5
3.5 3.5
3.5 3.5
Dicalcium phosphate 6.0
6.0 6.0
5.1 4.2
Limestone 9.8
9.8 9.8
10.0 10.9
Minerals and vitamins 2.5
2.5 2.5
2.5 2.5
Synthetic amino acids Lysine
2.0 2.0
2.0 2.0
2.0 Methionine
0.9 0.9
0.9 0.8
0.7
21
Chemical composition g kg DM
884.5 876.0
870.5 878.5
872.2 Ash
54 58
62 50
54 Fat
60 69
77 60
61 Crude fibre
43 49
55 49
56 Crude protein
195 209
231 206
213 Lysine
10.8 11.1
11.2 11.0
11.0 Methionine and cystine
6.2 6.4
6.6 6.2
6.3 Threonine
7.5 7.8
8.2 7.6
7.6 Calcium
6.6 6.6
6.9 6.6
6.6 Phosphorus
5.5 5.4
5.6 5.5
5.5
21 a
Digestible energy content MJ kg 13.85
14.05 14.25
13.93 13.97
a
The DE content of the diets was calculated using the estimated DE content of the copra meal obtained from the digestibility experiment while the DE value for the remainder of the ingredients were obtained from official feeding tables Ministry of Agriculture, Fisheries and
Food, 1991.
21
Estimated lean meat proportion g kg 5 655.4
ash by burning in a furnace at 600 8C for 4 h, crude
protein by the macro-Kjeldahl method Kjeldahl N 3
2 13.498 3 probe fat mm 1 0.177 6.25, neutral detergent fibre NDF content by the
2
3 probe fat, mm 1 0.719 3 muscle depth mm method of Van Soest 1976, crude fibre by the
Weende method AOAC, 1980. Ether extract was 2.3. Chemical analysis
determined using the 1043 Soxtec System HT6 as derived from the Soxlet method. The amino acid
The chemical analysis of dry matter, crude protein compositions of the diet were determined by the
and ash were carried out according to the AOAC method of Iwaki et al. 1987.
1980. The dry matter contents of the feeds and faeces were determined by oven drying at 55
8C for 2.4. Statistical analysis
72 h with forced air circulation. The dried concen- trates and faeces were milled through a 1-mm screen
The data was analysed using least square pro- Christy and Norris hammer mill and analysed for
cedures Proc. GLM of the Statistical Analysis
J .V. O’Doherty, M.P. McKeon Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55 –65
59
System [SAS, 1985] version 5.16. In the digestibili- Table 3. There was a significant interaction in
ty experiment, the data was analysed as a 3 diets 3
organic matter OM, protein and energy digestibility 2 age factorial design. The model was partitioned
between level of copra meal in the diet and age of into the main effects of diet, age of pig, pig effect
pig P ,0.05. The pigs offered the 400 g copra
21
and the interaction of diet and age of pig. The meal kg
in the diet had a significantly higher OM, individual pig served as the experimental unit. In the
protein and energy digestibility P ,0.05 in the
performance experiment, the overall effect of level finisher stage than in the grower stage. However, age
of copra meal and method of formulation on pig of pig had no effect on nutrient digestibility when the
21
performance and carcass characteristics were ana- pigs were fed the control and 200 g copra meal kg
lysed as a 2 32 factorial. In addition orthogonal
diets. Pigs offered the control diet had a significantly contrasts were made between the control and the four
lower fibre digestibility than pigs offered the 200 and
21
copra meal diets T2, T3, T4 and T5, between the 400 g copra meal kg
diets P ,0.05.
21
control and the 100 g copra meal kg diets T2 and
The nutrient digestibility coefficients and the DE T4 and between the control and the 200 g copra
content of the copra meal component of the diet are
21
meal kg diets T3 and T5. The kill-out, back fat
presented in Table 4. There was a tendency for the and lean meat were adjusted for slaughter weight by
digestibility of the OM, protein and energy and the covariance analysis. The individual pen served as the
DE content of the copra meal to decrease as the level experimental unit.
of copra meal in the test diet increased. 3.2. Performance experiment
3. Results
