34 Pork News & Views Better Pork April 2021 Pork News & Views Better Pork | October 2024 Ministry of Agriculture, Food and Agribusiness Does Timing of Feeding Impact Farrowing Time? INTRODUCTION Sometimes assistance is required throughout farrowing in order to improve piglet survival (e.g., drying of piglets, ensuring colostrum intake, assisting with piglet delivery), resulting in increased labour costs. Close monitoring of farrowing provides intervention that is more effective, resulting in a higher number of weaned pigs, which significantly influences profitability. Staff availability is a limiting factor in providing farrowing monitoring, ideally being available 24 hours per day, increasing labour costs. There is evidence in cattle and ewes that feeding at night results in an increase in the incidence of calving/lambing during the day. Sows on commercial farms typically receive feed during daytime hours, with a high percentage of farrowing occurring unassisted overnight. With the availability and adoption of automated feeding technology for sows in farrowing, it is possible to easily adjust feeding time pre-farrow. Increasing the probability and proportion of farrowing events that occur during the day will reduce labour requirements and improve productivity as well as improve pig performance. Does adjusting the feeding time (morning vs. evening) of sows in farrowing influence timing of farrowing? We moved sows into farrowing rooms approximately 5 days before expected farrowing date, placed them on a common lactation diet, and fed according to established sow feeding curves with feed intake controlled and monitored automatically. Each room of sows were placed on either morning (7:00 a.m.) or evening (7:00 p.m.) initiation of feeding in the pre-farrowing period (~d110 of gestation) and switched to a common feeding program post-farrow. Cameras placed above each farrowing crate recorded all farrowing events including the initiation of farrowing, completion of farrowing, and farrowing duration. Total number of piglets born alive, stillborn and mummies, total number of weaned piglets, foster on, foster off and pre-weaning mortality were recorded. RESULTS AND DISCUSSION Of the 278 sows initially placed on test, 10 sows were removed due to low birth numbers and 30 were excluded from data calculations due to malfunctioning feeders resulting in insufficient feed intake data, 20 sows were removed due to mortality or problem with the video recording. Sow and litter characteristics and performance: There was no difference in sow parity between treatments (Table 1; P > 0.10). There was no difference in total number of piglets born alive, stillborn and mummies, foster on and foster off (Table 1; P > 0.10). However, there was an increase in total number of piglets weaned and a decrease in pre-weaning mortality in sows that received PM feeding (Table 1; P < 0.05). Sow feed intake: Sows receiving PM feed had an increased total feed intake and a tendency for increased daily feed intake. The increase in the total feed intake could be because they received the PM feed about one day extra compared to the AM fed sows. Frequency of start and end of farrowing: Initiating sow feeding in the morning increased the frequency of farrowing initiation during the day (7:00 am to 3:00 pm) compared to evening-fed sows (51.43% vs 21.95%, respectively). There was no difference between morning and evening feeding time on the frequency of farrowing completion during work hours and/or after work hours. IMPLICATIONS Results suggest that initiating feeding in the morning may be beneficial for maximizing the number of farrowing events that occur and completed when workers are present. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS Funding for this project was provided by the Government of Saskatchewan and the Government of Canada under the Canadian Agricultural Partnership via the Agriculture Demonstration of Practices and Technologies (ADOPT) program. J.C. Panison and D. Columbus, Prairie Swine Centre Inc., PO Box 21057, 2105 – 8th Street East, Saskatoon, SK, S7H 5N9 Table 1: Effect of initiation of feeding time (AM vs. PM) on sow and litter characteristics and performance1 AM PM SEM P -value Born alive 14.81 14.84 0.03 0.940 Stillborn 1.65 1.89 0.21 0.274 Mummies 0.47 0.28 0.17 0.279 Total born 16.71 16.78 0.34 0.839 Total wean 11.51 12.12 0.24 0.014 Foster in 1.22 1.29 0.20 0.743 Foster off 1.80 1.80 0.23 0.995 Mortality 2.28 1.78 0.23 0.036 Duration of farrowing (h) 5:29 5:26 2.37 0.915 SEM, standard error of mean 1Values are least square means
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