Effects of Processed Barley on Growth Performance and Ileal Digestibility of Growing Pigs

Two experiments were conducted to evaluate the effects of processing of barley on the growth performance and ileal and fecal digestibility of growing pigs. In Exp. 1, a total of 20 cannulated pigs (10.80 kg BW) were allotted to four treatments. Treatments were coarse ground barley as a control (CON), finely ground barley (FINE), extruded barley (EXT) and enzyme supplemented coarse ground barley (ENZ). In Exp. 2, a total of 100 growing pigs (36.50 kg BW) were allocated to the same treatments in completely randomized block design based on sex and body weight. In the first trial, pigs fed extruded barley showed significantly higher crude protein digestibility over pigs fed finely ground barley (p < 0.05). Pigs fed finely ground barley generally showed lower nutrients digestibility. Extrusion and ${\beta}$-glucanase supplementation showed a trend to improve nutrients digestibility. However, fine grinding rather reduced nutrients digestibility. The similar trend was found in the digestibility of essential amino acids. Fine grinding of barley significantly reduced amino acids digestibility. Extrusion and enzyme supplementation were found to improve amino acids digestibility of barley in growing pigs. In the growth trial, pigs fed extruded barley grew significantly faster than any other processed barley fed pigs. And extrusion of barley significantly improved feed/gain of pigs (p < 0.05). Fine grinding of barley and enzyme supplementation did not improve growth performance of pigs. In conclusion, fine grinding and enzyme supplementation does not appear to be an economical feed processing for growing pigs when barley is employed in the diets, while extrusion can be recommended as an effective feed processing technique for barley.