Net Energy of Diets for Growing Pigs

It is known that around 70% of production costs in pig farming come from feed. It is therefore essential that the diets fed to these animals are highly digestible, optimizing the efficiency with which nutrients are used. Some dietary manipulations, such as processing and supplementation with enzymes, can influence the effectiveness of nutrient digestibility and the energy values of the feed, minimizing feed costs. Feed formulation based on net energy values is more accurate in terms of the energy needs of pigs, since it estimates the heat production generated as a caloric increase, as it describes the real energy content of the diet when compared to digestible and metabolizable energy systems.