Nursery Pig Management

Presented by Peter Wilcock, Associated British Nutrition - Primary Diets - AB Agri Ltd. at the 2009 London Swine Conference.

Peter Wilcock gave a very complete and thorough presentation on Fine Tuning Nursery Management to Optimize Production Costs. The presentation is its entirety is very complete and thorough and deals with the whole spectrum of Nursery Management. In this article, we are constrained by the space available and so have chosen to summarize his comments only as they apply to feed. The rest of the paper is very wide in scope and well worth reading. However, feed was selected because of its significant cost factors associated with pork production.

Feed can assist in many units with overcoming some of the management issues, but a combination of the correct feed, feed program and good management is the best chance of successful pork production.

Creep Feeding

In his discussions on creep feeding, Wilcock covers the traditional areas of benefits vs age vs costs but comes to the sound conclusions that significant benefits accrued to pigs that were offered creep feed, and that in fact they did eat the creep feed (see accompanying article, "Nursery Improvement - Practical Tips"). Considerations were given to offering creep feed at seven days instead of fourteen days of age lead to a 10% increase in number of pigs consuming creep by weaning age. The complexity of the creep feed was also looked at and work by Frazer (1994) showed that increased complexity of the diet increased the creep feed consumption of the piglets which improved post-weaning growth.

Creep feeder type has a significant effect on feed consumption and percentage of piglets consuming food. Sulabo et al (2008) examined three types of creep feeders and showed that one particular feeder type increased the percentage of pigs consuming creep by approximately 30% when compared to other feeders. The studies showed that creep fed piglets improved gain by an average 11.25% at approximately 30 days post weaning. This advantage in performance can be achieved through focusing on creep feeding and using management to stimulate creep feed intake.

In his discussions on feed quality he explored a number of feeding trials and drew the conclusion that complex diets show significant improvements in pig performance. Among the results observed is the fact that reduced variation in nursery out-weights and the reduction of poor pigs in the nursery is a definite advantage.

Gruel Feeding

Gruel feeding is typically used with piglets up to five days past weaning to be fed alongside traditional dry feed. It should not be fed longer as it will lead to pigs having difficulty in using the dry feeder. This rule may be excepted in hospital pens, where it is typically fed three times daily. It is important to use higher sanitation levels for gruel feeding equipment since it is a system which quickly allows bacterial growth and development. In management practices after feeding the pig with a syringe, it should be returned to the pen, as close as possible to the feeder, so the animal will associate the feeding process with the feeder and improve the opportunity of self feeding.

Feed Program

The benefits of a feed program are simple. The object is not to underfeed the pig and loose performance or overfeed the pig with higher cost diets than needed. An example from the Prairie Swine Centre (Whittington et al 2005), showed that underfeeding phase 1 and phase 2 feeds by 5kg. (approximately) resulted in pigs being 4.5kg behind the nursery exit weight. Correcting the program resulted in exit weights that were now just 0.8kg behind target. When the numbers were crunched on this correction there was found to be an increase in profit of $1.85 per pig, even after feed costs were corrected.

This brief summary in no way does justice to the complete paper and it is suggested that you read it from the proceedings either on line or in published material. It is also important to work with your feed suppliers and nutritionists to obtain the greatest advantage available to you from your feeding program.

Related Links

• London Swine Conference

June 2009 Pork News & Views - Table of Contents