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- Effect of supplementary milk on creep feed intake, pre-weaning behaviour, gut development and lifetime performance of sow-suckled litters
Effect of supplementary milk on creep feed intake, pre-weaning behaviour, gut development and lifetime performance of sow-suckled litters
Summary
The number of piglets born alive per litter is increasing rapidly and may exceed the number of functional teats of the sow. This presents the challenge of how to rear the excess piglets.
Supplementary milk provided in the farrowing pen has been shown to reduce mortality, but so far it has not been possible to identify which piglets are benefitting from supplementary milk.
This project at Harper Adams University is trialling the use of electronic identification (EID) and novel technology to identify which pigs are consuming supplementary milk (SM) and creep, and at what level.
It is investigating the effect of litter size relative to functional teats, birthweight, and suckling position on supplementary milk (SM) consumption when no creep is provided.
Early results show that SM consumption per litter increased throughout the suckling period and at a greater rate in litters where sows had insufficient functional teats for the number of piglets from day 11 of lactation.
|
|
Sufficient functional teats |
Insufficient functional teats |
|
Functional teats at farrowing |
14.7 |
14.7 |
|
Pigs/litter at day 4 |
13.7 |
15.9 |
|
Pigs/litter at weaning |
13.5 |
15.6 |
|
Litter weight weaned (kg) |
118.0 |
127.8 |
|
Average piglet weight weaned (kg) |
8.77 |
8.20 |
|
Total SM used (kg/litter) |
51.0 |
103.2 |
|
Milk powder used (kg/litter) |
7.6 |
15.5 |
|
Sow weight loss from farrowing entry (kg) |
22.2 |
32.0 |
There was no effect of suckling position on average visits to the SM per day among piglets with a teat. However, piglets without a teat visited the SM station more frequently and for longer periods of time from day four to weaning, reinforcing the importance of SM being available from birth.
The next stage of the research is to determine the effect of creep feeding, particularly on the piglets without a teat, who were 3 kg lighter at weaning compared with the piglets suckling a posterior teat.
Sector:
Pork
Date:
01 April 2018 - 31 March 2023
Project leader:
Harper Adams University
About this project
Successfully rearing additional piglets will improve economic performance and piglet welfare, but milk replacer and creep diets are costly.
Determining the most efficient strategies for pre-weaning nutrition of piglets is, therefore, key.
Lifetime performance data of pigs with varying levels of supplementary milk and creep consumption may help to inform post-weaning management strategies.
For more information about this project, contact Zanita Markham.
