Dairy before weaning boosts pig performance
Investing in a piglet at a young age will have a positive effect on the technical performance of the animal until slaughter. Feeding extra milk, which is high in dairy protein and fat, between the initial sows milk and weaning, offers the piglet building blocks to survive and grow.
By Anne-Marie van Bussel, product manager piglets, Nukamel
Milk is a highly palata- ble product which makes it a logical first step for a piglet to start eating anything other than sows milk from a teat.
R 10 PIGLETS - JULY/AUGUST 2016
aising a piglet to become a robust finisher is not an easy job. On its way a piglet must overcome difficulties, such as learning to eat (anything other than sow milk), weaning, several feed changes and placement into new units. Research
at Wageningen University, the Netherlands, found that birth- weight and weaning weight have a great influence on a pig’s potential growth as a finisher (Table 1). Investing young in a pig therefore offers an improvement in performance for the rest of the animal’s lifetime and increased economic benefits. Looking at current developments like reducing the use of anti- biotics but also increased litter sizes, it can only be concluded
that it is even more important to invest in a piglet before wean- ing. Besides that, it can be concluded that weaning a piglet at three or even at four weeks is in fact really challenging. According to further research carried out at Wageningen University, 40% of piglets fed dry feed before weaning, do not eat (Table 2). This shows that these piglets aren’t ready to phys- ically eat dry feed and can hardly digest the material once they start eating. Their digestive system simply lacks the right enzymes and intestinal flora to take the nutrients into their system. This not only results in wasted resources but worse, it leads to intestinal atrophy, diarrhoea, and weight loss in the piglets after weaning. Furthermore, this doesn’t just apply to large litters.
Bridging the gap The feed additive industry is doing a good job at looking for the right alternatives to support piglets through these transi- tions. Adding certain additives can help to improve a piglet’s gut health for instance. However, if the piglet doesn’t eat, how can the additive really do its job? Looking at the feed management of pigs in general and piglets in particular, based upon the previous information, it can only be concluded that there is a gap between the sows milk and dry feed (weaning), at least for a lot of piglets. It is also known that the sows milk is not enough to raise the piglets in some cases.
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