Evaluation of balanced diets in fattening pigs in the commune Bellavista del Cerro, Julio Moreno, Santa Elena province

Abstract

The pig-farming sector in Ecuador is not fully exploited yet. The systems of intense exploitation revolve around large companies because they produce balanced feed for their own feeding lines or to commercialize it at high prices. Therefore, it becomes impossible for small and medium producers to acquire this type of food, making them choose to feed their animals in a traditional way. For this reason, the objective of this project is to evaluate traditional balanced diets compared to commercial balanced feed in fattening pigs, expecting to obtain the same productive parameters at a lower cost, thus, increasing profitability. For this trial, 16 large white weaned pigs were evaluated by measuring variables such as weight gain (GP), food conversion (CA), food consumed (AC), cost-benefit relationship (R-B/C) of each treatment; local raw materials were used to produce the traditional balanced diets. The data was evaluated every fortnight; the T1 had the best performance in all the variables; bearing average fortnightly GP of 9.91 kg; CA of 2.99; AC of 24.18 kg; and R-B/C of $ 0.36. On the other hand, T3 performed a better result with R-B/C of $ 0.23 despite presenting productive parameters inferior to T2. Finally, the results demonstrate that the traditional balanced diets did not match the productive parameters of commercial balanced feed, but the profitability got increased as it is shown by T3 vs. T2. In consequence, it is recommended to continue evaluating other traditional diets compared to other existing commercial balanced feed existing in the area