Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55–65 www.elsevier.com locate livprodsci
The use of expeller copra meal in grower and finisher pig diets
J.V. O’Doherty , M.P. McKeon
Department of Animal Science and Production , Agriculture Building, University College Dublin, Belfield and Lyons Research Farm,
Newcastle , Co. Dublin, Ireland
Received 16 November 1998; received in revised form 3 September 1999; accepted 14 March 2000
Abstract
Two experiments were conducted to determine the nutritive value of copra meal for grower and finisher pigs 40–95 kg.
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The apparent nutrient digestibility of copra meal, when included at 200 and 400 g kg in the diet of both the grower and
finisher pig, was determined in experiment 1. In experiment 2, productive performance was determined in group fed pigs
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n 5 360 offered diets ad libitum containing a control diet 0 copra meal T1, 100 g copra meal kg
T2 and 200 g
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copra meal kg T3 formulated as a direct replacement for barley and 100 g copra meal kg
T4 and 200 g copra
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meal kg T5 formulated on a least cost basis. The control and least cost diets were formulated to have similar
concentrations of digestible energy and ideal protein. There was a significant interaction in organic matter OM, protein and energy digestibility between level of copra meal in the diet and age of pig P
, 0.05. The pigs offered the 400 g copra
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meal kg in the diet had a higher nutrient digestibility during the finisher stage than during the grower stage P
, 0.001. However, age of pig had no effect on nutrient digestibility when the pigs were offered the control diet and the 200 g copra
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meal kg diets. In experiment 2, there was a linear decrease P
, 0.05 in feed intake as the level of copra meal in the diet increased. There was a significant interaction in growth rate between level of copra meal inclusion and method of
formulation P , 0.01. As the level of copra meal increased in the least cost formulation, growth rate increased P , 0.05.
As the level of copra meal increased in the barley substitution formulation, growth rate decreased P , 0.05. The inclusion
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of 200 g copra meal kg in the diet decreased the kill out proportion compared to the control and 100 g copra meal kg
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P , 0.01. In conclusion, 200 g copra meal kg
can be used in the diet of grower–finisher pigs but its performance will depend on the method of formulation used.
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved.
Keywords : Pigs; Diet; Copra meal
1. Introduction the industry has few options available to it when
these ingredients become expensive. To avoid this The Irish pig industry relies heavily on traditional
problem, alternative cheaper ingredients such as feedstuffs such as wheat, barley and soya bean meal
copra meal need to be researched. Copra meal is to formulate pig diets. Because of this dependence,
produced by expeller extracting dried coconut ker- nels to remove the coconut oil Butterworth and Fox,
1963. Copra meal is a variable commodity Thorne
Corresponding author. Tel.: 1353-1-706-7128; fax: 1353-1-
et al., 1990 and the variation in the nutrient content
706-1103. E-mail address
: john.vodohertyucd.ie J.V. O’Doherty.
of copra meal is fundamentally a function of differ-
0301-6226 00 – see front matter
2000 Elsevier Science B.V. All rights reserved. P I I : S 0 3 0 1 - 6 2 2 6 0 0 0 0 1 9 0 - 1
56 J
.V. O’Doherty, M.P. McKeon Livestock Production Science 67 2000 55 –65
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ences in residual oil content. As a result of this, the copra, T2 control diet 800 g kg
plus 200 g
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residual ingredient left is moderately high in oil copra meal kg
and T3 control diet 600 g kg
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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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
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2. Materials and methods copra meal kg
