ABSTRACT


Marco Antonio Esnaola.1 y Joé Alberto Ochoa2
 
The use of rations based on barley and fish meal was studied on growing and fattening pigs. Different percentages of the fish meal protein were substituted by rapeseedmeal. Results indicate that increasing the level of rapeseed meal in the ration producedsmaller liveweight increase, a decrease in feed consumption, loss of the feed efficiencyand larger thyroid glands and liver. The rapeseed meal did not have any effect on carcasscharacteristics. Rapeseed meal can compete economically with fish meal at substitution levels of 75and 100%. This is caused by a reduction in feeding costs of 8 and 6% respectively. However,this results in larger periods to reach market weight of 22 and 28 days, thus thebenefits of using rapeseed meal will depend on the price relationship to fish meal andthe rate of gain desired in orden to get the pigs to market at a given date.
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1Ing. Agr. Proyecto de Producción Porcina. Estación Experimental Carillanca. Instituto de Investigaciones Agropecuarias, Casilla 58-D Temuco, Chile.
2Memorate, Estudiante Agronomía. Universidad Católica de Valparaíso.