Nutritional means to overcome negative effects of feeding high levels of potassium from co-products to growing-finishing pigs

Four experiments were conducted to investigate the impact of feeding high potassium (K) containing co-product based diets on growth performance and carcass quality in liquid-fed grower-finisher pigs. Feeding diets containing 20% whey permeate (WP), 4-6% corn steep water (CSW) and 1.4% K reduced growth performance and induced kidney abnormalities. In two subsequent studies the impact of feeding additional sodium chloride, sodium nitrate and calcium chloride (CaCl2) on pigs fed high K diets was explored. In the final pig performance study the effects of adding varying levels of CaCl2 to either a high K corn and soybean meal based diet (CSBM) or a co-product based diet (22%WP and 5% CSW) on finishing pigs was evaluated. Feeding additional CaCl2 improved feed efficiency and reduced kidney abnormalities in pigs fed CSBM, while the impact of adding CaCl2 to the co-product diet was inconclusive and only minor effects on carcass and meat quality were observed.