An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of current early weaning practices on the behaviour of piglets in the nursery and through the grower/finisher phase. Two treatments were compared: weaning at 21 or weaning at 12 days of age. Treatments were housed in separate but identical on-site nursery rooms, and within the same grower/finisher rooms. Pigs weaned at 12 days of age were found to be slower to develop normal levels of eating behaviour than those weaned at 21 days of age, but did so by 48 h after weaning. During the subsequent 5 a