Feed is the single largest cost associated with producing pork, ranging from 50-70% of the total cost of production.\u00a0 When looking to save money in their feeding programs, producers typically consider the finishing herd as it represents approximately two-thirds of the total feed cost.\u00a0 One area that can be easily overlooked is lactation feeding strategies and delivery.<\/p>\n
Traditionally most producers feed lactating sows manually, feeding sows up to three times per day in order to maximize feed intake and optimize litter performance.\u00a0 However, providing large quantities of feed may result in increased feed wastage or spoilage.\u00a0 One technology pork producers have utilized to maximize lactation performance is electronic feeding systems for sows during lactation.\u00a0 These systems have multiple advantages over manual feed delivery including collection of feed intake data, controlled delivery of fresh feed, reduced feed wastage, and lower labour costs, however, these feed systems can be costly to install and maintain.<\/p>\n
A project at Prairie Swine Centre set out to develop a modified feeding system which provides the advantage of the delivery of fresh feed to the sow without the expense of the electronic feeding system.\u00a0 A simple feeding system was developed which consisted of a feed drop tube which extends to approximately one inch above the base of the feeder, requiring the sow to manipulate the tube to release small quantities of feed.<\/p>\n
A\u00a0 total\u00a0 of\u00a0 45\u00a0 sows\u00a0 and\u00a0 litters\u00a0 were\u00a0 randomly\u00a0 assigned\u00a0 to\u00a0 1\u00a0 of\u00a0 3 feeding\u00a0 systems, consisting of\u00a0 manual\u00a0 feeding,\u00a0 a\u00a0 commercially available electronic sow feeder, and the modified\u00a0 system.\u00a0\u00a0 Sow body weight, back\u00a0 fat,\u00a0 and\u00a0 body\u00a0 condition\u00a0 score\u00a0 were\u00a0 recorded\u00a0 when\u00a0 moved into\u00a0 the farrowing room and at weaning, 21 days post-farrowing.\u00a0 Sow feed\u00a0 intake\u00a0 was\u00a0 recorded\u00a0 daily\u00a0 with\u00a0 any\u00a0 spoiled\u00a0 feed\u00a0 being\u00a0 removed,\u00a0 weighed, and feed intake adjusted.\u00a0 Litter growth performance was measured weekly over the 3 week lactation.<\/p>\n
What did we find?\u00a0<\/strong><\/p>\n The type of feeding system used had no effect on sow body weight, body condition score, or back fat.\u00a0 There was a slight decrease in litter average daily gain in the third week post-farrowing on the electronic feeding system when compared to manual feeding, however, this did not result in a difference in overall litter weight.\u00a0 Sow feed intake was significantly higher with manual feeding when compared to the other two feeding systems in the first two weeks of lactation, but this difference was no longer evident in the third week.<\/p>\n For pork producers, what\u2019s the most important impact?<\/strong><\/p>\n This study demonstrated that manual feeding of sows during lactation can result in higher feed usage with no corresponding increase in sow or litter productivity.\u00a0 At today\u2019s feed prices the reduction in feed intake associated with the electronic or modified feeding system would save producers an estimated $8.50 per lactation when compared to manual feeding.\u00a0 Therefore, the electronic and modified feeding should be considered to minimize feed wastage and maximize returns.\u00a0 While both systems would reduce feed usage and labour costs associated with feeding, higher costs associated with the electronic feeding system needs to be weighed against additional benefits, such as automatic recording of feed intake when considering which system to implement in their facility.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Feed is the single largest cost associated with producing pork, ranging from 50-70% of the total cost of production.\u00a0 When looking to save money in their feeding programs, producers typically consider the finishing herd as it represents approximately two-thirds of the total feed cost.\u00a0 One area that can be easily overlooked is lactation feeding strategies […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[19,931],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-18826","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-pork-insight-articles","category-prairie-swine-centre"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=18826"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":18827,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/18826\/revisions\/18827"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=18826"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=18826"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/prairieswine.com\/rsc\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=18826"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}