<b>Nutritional evaluation of whole or grinder soybean hull, ensilaged or not, for growing pigs</b> - DOI: 10.4025/actascianimsci.v29i1.249

Abstract

An experiment was carried out using 11 crossbred pigs, barrows with body weight of 41.42 ± 0.99 kg. Pigs were allotted in metabolism cages, in a complete randomized design, in a split-plot design, with four treatments in a 2 x 2 (grinding x ensilage) factorial and two replicates. Soybean hull (SH) in the whole form (WSH), ground SH (GSH), WSH silage (WSHS) and GSH silage (GSHS), that replaced (based on dry matter) 25% of the reference diet, were evaluated resulting in four test diets. Enzymatic microbial inoculants were included in the silages production. Crude protein digestibility coefficient of soybean hull ensilage (68.08%) was higher than no silage (59.44%), regardless grinding. Results showed that grinding and/or ensilage do not modify dry matter, organic matter, and gross energy digestibility, as well as energy metabolism. The ensilage process increases the crude protein digestibility coefficient of soybean hull, regardless grinding.