Example Poster Pig Rate of Gain

							                                    Addition of Jello to Pig Feed Does Not Significantly
                                      Increases Rate of Weight Gain in Experiment
                                     By. C. Kohn, Waterford Union High School, Dept. of Agricultural Science. December 2010

Introduction                                                     250
                                                                                                                                         Results
Rate of weight gain is a major component                                                                                                 The calculated average of the pigs fed
of the profitability of a swine operation                        200                                                                     Jello-laced feed was 196 lbs of gained
(Peeg, 2010). The faster that a pig can gain                                                                                             weight (average of 10 pigs). The average




                                                   Weight Gain
                                                                 150
weight, the lower its expenses will be and                                                                                               of the control group was 179 lbs. The
the more profit it will create (Swighn,                          100
                                                                                                                                         error bars of both averages overlapped,
2009).     Feed additives can assist in                                                                                                  indicating that the difference between
improving pig rate of gain (Hahg, 2008).                          50                                                                     these two groups was not statistically
We wondered if Jello powder would work                                                                                                   significant.
                                                                   0
as a feed additive to improve rate of gain.                                 Jello                              Ctrl                      Visual observations seemed to support
We hypothesized that adding one 8 oz                                         Pig Group (Jello-feed or Control)                           the hypothesis that the pigs were more
packet of Jello to 50 lbs. of feed would
                                                                                                                                         eager to eat the feed laced with Jello.
increase pig weight gain compared to a         Fig 1. In this graph, you can see how total weight gain was affected by the addition
                                               of Jello compared to the control. The Jello-pigs gained an average of 196 lbs. while      Pigs in the Jello group seemed to eat
control. We believe this would be effective
                                               the control pigs gained an average of 179 lbs. However, because of overlapping error      earlier and longer and were more
because the sugar would encourage pigs to      bars, there is no statistically significant difference between these results. More data
                                               is needed to confirm if this result is reflective of Jello’s impact on rate of gain.      competitive for their food.
eat more because of a sweeter taste. To
test this, we will treat 10 pigs with the
Jello-feed, and compare to 10 control pigs      Discussion and Conclusion
on standard feed.                               We hypothesized that pigs fed Jello would have a higher rate of weight gain and gain more total weight. While our
                                                calculated average supports this hypothesis, we cannot confirm if this is true because our average was not
                                                statistically significantly different from the control. A larger group of pigs would be needed to confirm if this
Methods
                                                average is reflective of the impact of adding Jello.
Materials- CPI ground corn pig feed; 8 oz
Jello powder packets; 20 pigs; water            Our visual observations seemed to support our hypothesis. The pigs with the Jello feed seemed to like their feed
Steps                                           more and were more competitive to eat their feed when laced with Jello. It is possible that this was just an overly
1 Divide pigs into 2 groups of 10. Be sure      competitive group of pigs, but otherwise our observations support our hypothesis. We feel that a larger group of
they have access to water at all times.         pigs, and multiple trials of the same protocols, would be necessary to confirm if our results are reflective of the
2 Feed each group as needed; add Jello          actual impact of Jello on pig weight gain. In conclusion, while our data does not disprove our hypothesis, we
powder to the experimental group’s feed         cannot state with confidence that it supports our predictions. While believe our hypothesis and rationale are
at a rate of 8 oz per 50 lbs.                   legitimate but need more data to be confirmed.
3 Weigh pigs weekly and record their
weight.                                        Bibliography and Works Cited:
4 Divide the weight change by the number       Hahg, H. 2008. Swine Feed Additives. Alabama State University , Dept of Animal Science.
of days to calculate rate of gain.             Peeg, P. 2010. Factors affecting profitability of swine. UW Extension Agency.
                                                                                                                                         th
                                               Swighn, S. 2009. Raising and Marketing Swine. www.usda.gov/fsa/swine. Accessed November 15 , 2010.