Diets for pigs may vary in composition and in their concentration of the energy containing nutrients (i.e., protein, fat, starch and sugars, and dietary fiber). To our knowledge, however, there is no information on how concentration of net energy (NE) is affected by dietary fiber concentrations in diets fed to group-housed pigs. Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that increasing soybean hulls in diets for group-housed growing pigs decreases NE and nitrogen balance.

Key Points:

• Concentrations of DE, ME, and NE are decreased by increasing soybean hulls in diets fed to group-housed pigs.
• Digestibility of nitrogen is reduced, but retention rate of nitrogen is not affected by increasing soybean hulls in diets fed to group-housed pigs.
• Daily absorbed and retained nitrogen are decreased by increasing soybean hulls in diets fed to group-housed pigs.

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