Protease Supplementation in the Diet of Finishing Pigs: Implications on the Quality of Organic Fertilizers for Forage Production and Soil Chemical Composition

Ana Carla Moreira, Ana Paula Cardoso Gomide, Robson Evangelista Cardoso, Ruscarla Carvalho Moraes, Kátia Cylene Guimarães, Francisco Ribeiro de Araujo Neto, Fabiana de Freitas Cardoso and Patrick Bezerra Fernandes ()
Additional contact information
Ana Carla Moreira: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Ana Paula Cardoso Gomide: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Robson Evangelista Cardoso: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Ruscarla Carvalho Moraes: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Kátia Cylene Guimarães: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Francisco Ribeiro de Araujo Neto: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil
Fabiana de Freitas Cardoso: Animal Sciences, University of Maryland, College Park, MD 20742, USA
Patrick Bezerra Fernandes: Instituto Federal de Educação, Ciência e Tecnologia Goiano, Campus Rio Verde, Rio Verde 75901-970, Brazil

Agriculture, 2025, vol. 15, issue 5, 1-12

Abstract: The study evaluated the inclusion of protease in the diet of pigs in the final phase, analyzing its effects on residues used as organic fertilizer (OF) for corn silage cultivation. Conducted at the Federal Institute of Education, Science and Technology of Goiano, Rio Verde Campus, the experiment had three phases: the use of protease in intensive pig production, production of OF—pig slurry (PS), and its application in corn silage cultivation. The inclusion of protease in the diet did not affect the final weight of the pigs, with a mean of 89.75 kg. The use of PS from this production system did not affect the forage mass (23.64 Mg ha −1 ). On the other hand, in the short term, PS without enzyme both at sowing and covering, biofertilizer with enzyme at sowing and urea at covering, and PS with enzyme both at sowing and covering increased magnesium levels in the soil, with values ranging from 1.40 to 1.44 cmol c dm −3 . Although protease did not affect animal performance in the finishing phase, the waste produced by this production system influenced the soil’s chemical composition; furthermore, the use of PS from systems with or without enzymes could partially replace chemical fertilization.

Keywords: agriculture; forage production; corn; organic fertilization; soil (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: Q1 Q10 Q11 Q12 Q13 Q14 Q15 Q16 Q17 Q18 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2025
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations:

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/5/534/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2077-0472/15/5/534/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jagris:v:15:y:2025:i:5:p:534-:d:1602800

Access Statistics for this article

Agriculture is currently edited by Ms. Leda Xuan

More articles in Agriculture from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().