Earl du Grand Clos farm, near Lamballe, France, from the outside.
castrates and females and to apply a feed curve for each of them. At Earl de Grand Clos, three different types of feeds are used, a grower ration and two finisher rations, both consist- ing of a mixture of wheat, barley, rapeseed, triticale, sunflow- er and bakery by-products in different proportions. The diets are supplied to the individual feeding station, then the feeder itself provides just enough of the required feed type for that specific animal on the basis of the pig weight it measures in the feeder plus the data provided through the ear tag. On the Baudet farm, Allflex ear tags are being used at a cost of roughly € 1 each. These are relatively heavy ear tags, which is why they are not added to the pigs’ ears straight after birth. Rather, they are applied just before the pigs are transferred from weaning to the grow-finisher barn at around 25 kg ( 75–80 days of age).
Ear tags in practice Just like with ESF stations, the RFID tags communicate with the individual feeding station, so the algorithm determines which type and ration a pig will receive. Dr Gloux explains, “For each pig the ‘day’ begins at a different moment of the day. So the moment that a pig has new credits for rations is different for each pig. That way it will not be very busy at one moment of the day. Plus it allows us to have up to 40 grow-finisher pigs in a pen for one station.” It is typical in France to put approximately 15 pigs per fin- isher pen, irrespective of them being fed liquid or dry feed. At Earl du Grand Clos, to accommodate groups of about 40 pigs in restricted feeding conditions, the walls between three compartments were partly removed and the individual feeder placed there. That way, the same space per finisher pig (0.7 m2
) could still be guaranteed. The feeding station generates a lot of data about the finisher herd.
Earlier trials, held in Earl de Grand Clos, had already shown a significant difference compared to the conventional system. Compared to the Earl de Grand Clos average expressed in the annual French GTE* report in 2020, feed conversion ratio was lower, at 2.37 vs 2.45. Average daily gain was observed to be roughly identical, at 873 g (GTE) vs 872 g (new feeder station). Emission levels expressed in nitrogen excreted per kg/pig was 4.3, which is 7% lower than the average of the farm.
It is clearly visible that two feeding lines meet at the individual feeding stations. 26
▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 10, 2021
Homogeneity The figures for average daily gain as well as the lower emis- sion levels are all related to the fact that the pigs raised in the individual feeder are more homogenous when they are sent to slaughter. Valentin Bouvier, export manager at Asserva, ex- plains: “Because every pig gets the ration it needs now, what you’ll see is that we slow down the very fast growing having an ad libitum feeding behaviour with conventional feeders. They would normally be fatty pigs anyway. So the first pigs would go to the slaughterhouse a little bit later compared to conventional feeders. But the biggest gain is that the slow ones grow faster and the end is more uniform.”
PHOTO: VINCENT TER BEEK
PHOTO: VINCENT TER BEEK
PHOTO: VINCENT TER BEEK
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