Nutritional plans for boars

Abstract

The objective of the present study was to evaluate nutritional plans for boars. Four hundred animals of 67 to 135 days of age and initial weight of 27.75±1.61 kg were distributed in a randomized block design with seven nutritional plans for boars (9.0-8.0; 9.0-9.0; 10.0-9.0; 10.0-10.0; 11.0-10.0; 11.0-11.0 and 12.0-11.0 g/kg of digestible lysine from 67 to 107 days and from 108 to 135 days, respectively) with four repetitions and a control plan for barrows (11.0-10.0 g/kg of digestible lysine) with eight repetitions and ten animals each. Uncastrated male swine presented better feed conversion; however they showed a lower marbling degree in relation to barrows, regardless of the nutritional plan. The nutritional plan that corresponds to the sequence of 11.0-10.0 g/kg of digestible lysine from the 67 to the 107 days and from the 108 to the 135 days, respectively, meets the nutritional needs of boars.