Self-rationing by suckling sows improves performance

Saturday, January 31, 2015

A German firm specializing in feed supplements and rationing systems has found that ad lib feeding makes for better sow condition, more uniform litter size and higher weaning weight

by NORMAN DUNN

Feeding suckling sows for maximum milk production while maintaining body condition needs a skilful hand in the farrowing barn. Get the equation wrong and you've not only got an underperforming litter, you've also got a thin sow at serving time with all the breeding problems this can bring.

So why not let the sow decide her feed intake for herself? A German firm has looked at the possibility and found sows are good at regulating their own ration intake and certainly don't get too fat on ad lib feeding.

Ahrhoff, a Westphalia-based international specialist in feed supplements and rationing systems, has been looking at ad lib feeding of suckling sows for four years now. Its researchers say conventional rationing leaves 80 per cent of modern sows underfed, especially in the first week post-farrowing. Over the whole suckling period, it finds, feeding to appetite only increases sow intake by 10 to 15 per cent.

The advantages of the ad lib approach: more milk, increased litter uniformity with one kilogram higher weaning weight on average, sows in better condition and weaning-to-service days cut by a bit more than a day to an average 3.7. What's more, Ahrhoff finds that the advantages continue into the next breeding cycle with significantly higher rates of embryo survival at 28 days after service. One of the Ahrhoff-cited trials put this survival figure at 87.53 per cent.

Among the German pioneers of such a system is Peter Georg Witt from Schleswig-Holstein, who has been testing it on his 900-sow (Pietrain x Danbred) unit for two years now. Current annual performance per sow from the breeding unit is 31 weaners averaging 6.5 kilograms liveweight at three weeks weaning.

As with the Ahrhoff experience, Witt's suckling sows also have a 10 to 15 per cent extra feed intake. Self-rationing – from a plastic pipe that's kept filled up and meters dry rations into the trough when nudged by the sow's nose – means daily intake can be up to 12 kilograms with older sows. But this fluctuates considerably, especially during week two after farrowing.

This farmer finds that his sows are in better condition and weaners are heavier. There's a lot less labour involved, too. But there's another valuable advantage that only the farmer sees – more relaxed sows and therefore better mothers. This behaviour trend shows itself in better litter results by weaning. For instance, there is no more scrambling to the trough at feeding time with piglets often trampled.

Methane-fed biomass serves as protein substitute for soys
Matching protein in swine rations much more precisely to animal requirements not only offers huge savings through more accurate feeding. Waste proteins ending up in the manure can be avoided, too. Result: a lot less pollution potential.

In Denmark, Hanne Damgaard Poulsen, professor of animal science at Aarhus University, heads a new team of scientists and feed experts with the task of commercializing bacteria-produced feed proteins. The aim is to use these to – at least partly – replace imported soybeans while offering more precise protein supplies to growing hogs and other farm livestock. These new proteins come straight from a fermenter. No crop growing is required. The amino acid profile can also be infinitely adjusted to give an entirely new kind of phase-feeding.

This is a three to four year project supported with a total C$ 5.2 million budget. In fact, the basic production process is already up and running. The Danish company UniBio has patented a fermenter that uses the bacterium Methylococcus capsulatus to produce a protein-rich biomass (71 per cent protein), already labelled as "UniProtein." This is ready for further processing and granulating. The bacterium is fed simply on methane or methanol. Natural gas is seen as the main source in the future.

The important work right now, says Prof. Poulsen, is tailoring the single cell protein to precisely meet hog requirements during the different growth phases. In the next years, the new feeds are to be tested in large-scale trials with digestibility and nutrient balances mapped out.

The European Union has already approved the methane product as fit for animal nutrition. Tests are also being conducted with salmon, calves and chickens. As well as soybean meal, the test tube protein proves a close substitute for high quality fishmeal, another attractive environment protection bonus.

Calling Josephine: your feed's ready!
Can individual swine recognize and react to a name? Christian Manteuffel, researcher at Germany's Leibniz Institute for Farm Animal Biology, has demonstrated that sows have no problem with this – as long as the name is two or, better still, three syllables long. That's why all the sows in his test pen just now have distinctive names instead of the usual numbers. There's a Josephine, for instance, and a Beatha.

There's never been any real doubt that swine are intelligent enough to recognize names. About seven years ago, researchers first launched voice, or sometimes just tone, recognition training for gestating sows. The concept: that they would recognize their respective names, or audio signals, and walk up to the electronic feed dispenser only when "personally" called. The theory was that fighting and injuries, which sometimes occur when two or more sows turn up at the dispenser at the same time, might then be reduced.

The concept is working well. Researcher Manteuffel finds that calling the sows by computer voice cuts wrangling at the feed dispenser by 85 per cent compared with a conventional system whereby sows wander up to the dispenser and gain access by ear tag transponder on a first-come, first-served basis. It is felt that this quieter environment at feeding is not only because there's more order now. It's also because the system keeps sows much busier. Less feed deposited at each visit to the dispenser means more feeding journeys and less time for confrontation.

According to Manteuffel, "we've been testing the system with a batch of five loose-housed sows. At first, the conventional earmark transponder entry to the dispenser is used, with each sow's name repeated continually as it feeds, so that animals associate `their´ name with feed availability. More due to the computer's vocalization capability than sow memory, the name only works when it has two or more syllables. Our system has a capacity of 120 different names."

This researcher cautions that the system isn't 100 per cent effective. "There's always a dominant sow in any group and they tend to ignore their names simply because there's no pressure for them to conform to the system. Lower ranking animals learn quickly because recognizing their name means a better chance of accessing the dispenser."

An international swine equipment manufacturer is developing the system further for commercial introduction. It is reckoned that a computerized voice system linked to the current transponder control of feeding would cost only an extra C$700.

Getting sows fit for farrowing
Even in Europe, where loose-housing for gestating sows is now nearly standard, pregnant animals are still not getting enough exercise before they move into the farrowing barn. Dr. Vivi Moustsen, chief scientist at the Danish Pig Research Centre (PRC), points out that human mothers-to-be are encouraged to keep fit with a series of approved physical exercise routines in the run-up to birth. She wants a keep-fit regime to be the norm for sows, too.

"A lot of energy and stamina is required from modern sows at farrowing," she points out. "Human births nowadays are accompanied by more or less carefully planned nutrition and exercise programs, We want to transfer this concept to our sows," she told the Danish website foodculture.

Dr. Moustsen is tackling this by taking a typical dry sow barn and positioning the supply points for feed, water supply and rooting material as widely apart as possible to encourage maximum movement for the sows throughout the day. This being Denmark, the project barn also features a futuristic automatic showering facility for the sows and this, too, is as far away from the other facilities as can be managed.

Researchers hope that the extra exercise will produce fitter sows. Even compared with just 10 years ago, sows in Denmark are 20 per cent heavier with 10 per cent more body length and litter size up by around three piglets to 14.9 (2013).

Bigger litters mean fitness for faster farrowing is now a key profitability factor, agrees Prof. Christian Fink Hansen from the Centre for Pig Production and Health at the University of Copenhagen. Nowadays, a normal farrowing takes around five hours, he says. But it can also last as long as nine hours. "This is why offering more opportunities for sow movement in the barn is important. With a long birth process, the last piglets born often suffer from lack of oxygen with resultant death or poor start in litter life."

In 2012, survival rate for piglets at birth in Denmark was 77.6 per cent. Through fitter sows, naturally along with other important farrowing management inputs, the Danes want to increase this figure to 80 per cent by 2020. BP