Better Pork - 2016 December

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Better Pork December 2016 33
meals accounting for 64 per cent of
total meals in the first feeding phase,
74 per cent in the second phase, and
82 per cent in the last phase.
Treatment did not affect number
of meals, duration of meals, time
between meals, feed consumed per
meal, and feed consumption rate
(Table 1). Gilts consumed 19 per cent
less feed per meal and had a signifi-
cantly lower feed consumption rate
compared with barrows.
Pig feeding behavior was not
affected by diet composition. How-
ever, there was a significant negative
correlation between feed efficiency,
the amount of feed consumed per
meal, and feed consumption rate. The
researchers found that the variables
which related most closely to pig per-
formance results were feed consump-
tion rate and number of meals per
day. Given the limitations of the cur-
rent experimental design, the scien-
tists determined that more research is
needed to pinpoint and interpret the
importance of these traits with larger
groups of pigs.
Precision feeding (at 100 per cent
of estimated lysine requirement)
NUTRITION
LSC AD-Dec BP 2017-final.pdf 1 2016-11-03 9:10 PM
Table 1. Feeding behavior of pigs fed in a group according to a three-phase feeding program or indi-
vidually with daily tailored diets providing a percentage of the estimated lysine requirements
Response
Treatments Sex Feeding phases
3-phase 110 100 90 80 Barrows Gilts 1 2 3
Interval between meals, min 280 275 234 241 241 263 267 227c 301a 268b
Feeding time per meal, min 6.39 5.85 5.77 5.70 5.44 6.46 5.82 6.21a 6.44a 5.76b
Feed intake per meal, g 258 250 243 239 217 286 231 194c 279b 301a
Feed consumption rate, g/min 39.8 41.5 41.7 41.0 39.7 42.7 39.9 31.4c 42.4b 50.2a
Number of meals per day 9.81 10.1 10.8 11.1 11.1 10.5 10.7 11.0a 9.42b 11.3a
a–cValues within a row and within the comparison (among treatments or feeding phases) with different superscripts differ significantly at P < 0.05
Source: Andretta, I., Pomar, C., Kipper, M., Hauschild, L., and Rivest, J. 2016. Feeding behavior of growing–finishing pigs reared under precision feeding strategies. J. Anim. Sci. 94: 7: 3042-3050.