Background: There is limited information about the response to field peas fed to weanling pigs. Two experiments were therefore conducted to investigate effects of including increasing levels of field peas in weanling pig diets.
Results: In Experiment 1, a reduction (linear, P < 0.05) in average daily gain (551, 574, 541, 548, 512 and 533 g d(-1)) was observed in response to increasing levels of raw field peas (0, 120, 240, 360, 480 and 600 g kg(-1)) in diets fed from day 14 to 42 post weaning. In Experiment 2, the inclusion of raw field peas (0, 245 or 490 g kg(-1)) in the diets reduced (linear, P < 0.05) feed intake from day 14 to 39 post weaning, but average daily gain and gain:feed were unaffected by the use of raw field peas. The response to extruded field peas was not different from that to raw field peas.
Conclusion: Up to 360 g kg(-1) raw field peas may be included in nursery diets without negatively influencing pig growth performance provided that diets are balanced for indispensable amino acids. Results from this work do not support any advantage of extruding the field peas.