Differences in particle size distribution were obtained by changing
the screen of the hammer mill. As the pelleting process also affects
the structure of the feed (Wolf et al., 2007), it was important
to determine the particle size distribution in the pellets. The wet
sieve analysis showed that the portion of particles smaller than
0.6 mm or higher than 1.18 mm was clearly different between
the finely and coarsely ground diets. Nevertheless, the proportion
of particles smaller than 0.3 mm was similar in the high fibre coarsely
ground and high fibre finely ground feed in the last feeding
phase. This might indicate that the proportion of larger particles
is more important in preventing gastric lesions, as the high fibre
coarsely ground feed led to considerably lower (better) gastric
lesion scores.