Salt supplementation of corn-soy diets for swine.

Four experiments involving 448 crossbred pigs have been conducted to determine the supplemental salt needs of growing-finishing swine fed conventional corn-soybean meal diets. In the various trials, supplemental salt levels ranging from 0 to 1.0% of the diet were fed to pigs from 40 to 60 lb (18 to 27 kg) to 210 to 220 lb (95 to 100 kg). Pigs fed supplemental salt (.1 to 1.0%) gained significantly faster than pigs fed no additional salt. There were no statistically significant differences between any of the supplemental salt levels. In all trials, gains were maximized at a level of .2% salt. Feed conversion data followed the same pattern as the gain data. Pigs fed no supplemental salt exhibited significantly poorer feed efficiency while the feed to gain ratio of all supplemental levels was similar. (