ARC protein standards for growing pigs (including a comparison between field trial approach and replication at a single centre)

Abstract

SummaryResults of a co-ordinated trial carried out at 20 centres indicated that increasing the dietary crude-protein percentage by 2·5 and the lysine by about 0·2 over the ARC recommended levels failed to improve performance or carcass quality, whereas decreasing these nutrients to a similar degree below the recommended levels adversely affected performance and carcass quality.At four centres there were six to eight replicates. Substantial differences in estimates of both the level of response to a given treatment and the magnitude of treatment effects were observed between individual centres.Factors affecting the size of these co-ordinated trials are discussed.