Effects of expanded diets and phase feeding programme on growth performance, carcass traits and meat quality in growing-finishing pigs

Abstract

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of expanded diets and phase feeding programmes in growing-finishing pigs. In Exp. 1, a total of 72 pigs (25.88 ± 1.34 kg) were randomly allotted to 3 dietary treatments: (1) unexpanded corn–wheat–soybean meal (CWSBM)-based diets with two-phase feeding programme; (2) expanded CWSBM-based diets with two-phase feeding programme; (3) unexpanded CWSBM-based diets with three-phase feeding programme. During 12–14 weeks and 1–14 weeks, pigs offered the expanded diets had lower feed conversion ratio (FCR) compared with those fed unexpanded diets (P