Impact of nutritional strategies on water productivity indicators for pigs

  • Julio Cesar Pascale Palhares Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA) Pecuária Sudeste
Keywords: aminoacids, drinking water, phytase, organic minerals

Abstract

The productivity of water is a poorly considered indicator in animal agriculture. This is because water is a resource still believed by persons in the production network to be abundant and of good quality. The aim of this study was to evaluate the impact of nutritional strategies in water productivity indicators for growing and slaughtering pigs. Five strategies were evaluated: control diet (T1), with a reduction in the level of crude protein (T2), phytase (T3), organic minerals (T4) and the three nutritional strategies combined (T5). The water productivity indicator is defined as the quantity of product by water used. The following indicators were calculated: total weight (kg L-1), cold carcass (kg L-1) lean carcass (L kg-1), and nutrition (kcal L-1). T5 showed the best productivities for each liter of water used. The total weight productivity in this treatment was 3.0 kg L-1, while in T1 was 2.5 kg L-1. T3 had the lowest productivities. The nutritional water productivities were 2,512, 2,763, 2,657, 2,814, and 3,039 kcal L-1, respectively for T1, T2, T3, T4, and T5. Nutritional strategies reduce the use of drinking water and therefore improve water productivities. The best productivities were observed when combining the strategies.

Author Biography

Julio Cesar Pascale Palhares, Empresa Brasileira de Pesquisa Agropecuária (EMBRAPA) Pecuária Sudeste
• Doutorado- Ciências da Engenharia Ambiental (Centro de Recursos Hídricos e Ecologia Aplicada (CRHEA)/Escola de Engenharia de São Carlos (EESC) 1999-2001 • Mestrado – Agronomia, área de concentração em Energia na Agricultura (Faculdade de Ciências Agronômicas (FCA)/UNESP) 1996-1998 • Graduação - Zootecnia (Faculdade de Ciências Agrárias e Veterinárias (FCAV)/UNESP) 1991-1995 Atividades Profissionais Pesquisa • Pesquisador da Embrapa Pecuária Sudeste nas áreas de avaliação de impacto ambiental da produção animal e manejo de recursos hídricos na pecuária Áreas de Pesquisa • impacto dos resíduos animais nos recursos hídricos e formas de mitigá-los; • ordenamento da produção animal nos territórios e bacias hidrográficas; • avaliação das legislações de licenciamento ambiental para atividades pecuárias; • proposição de boas práticas de produção em meio ambiente.
Published
19/12/2013
Section
Papers