SEARCH
Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Influence of Sow Lactation Feeding System on Sow and Piglet Performance
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre, Production by student on June 11, 2018
Electronic Feeding Systems (EFS) have many advantages when comparing them to manual feeding options, including collection of feed intake data, delivery of fresh feed and reducing feed wastage. This study looked at the implications of a modified feeding system on the performance of the sow and piglet during lactation. Being as feed costs are the largest expense that producers face, generally between 50-70% of the total cost of production, it is important to consider ways in which these costs can be reduced. When comparing manual feeding to both an EFS and a modified feeding system this study determined that all three systems resulted in similar performance from the sow and piglet. However, when looking at feed disappearance it was evident that both the ESF and the modified feeding system had reduced feed intake compared to that of the manual feeding system. The ESF and modified feeding system reduced feed disappearance on average by 19.7%. Through the use of economic analysis it was determined that by implementing one of these systems producers would save $8.50/sow/lactation. This study did not consider the cost of maintenance during the economic analysis.
Influence of Sow Lactation Feeding System on Sow and Piglet Performance – 2017