Practice Abstract - Research and innovation

Precision Production - Nutrient efficiency – feed

The Danish best practice ‘Systematic routine weighing’ improves feed efficiency of finisher pigs. Since feed provided to the pigs is a major contributor to production costs (up to 70%) it is worthwhile to optimize feed efficiency. Although there are a large variety of factors that impact feed efficiency (e.g., breed, environment, health, body composition, individual variation in maintenance requirements, etc.), body weight of the animals is arguably the most important factor driving pigs’ nutritional requirements during the growing period. Despite the simplicity of its definition, feed efficiency is a complex parameter to manage in commercial pig farms.

The best practice consists of a weighing system that allows the farmer to record growing/fattening pigs’ live weight on a daily or weekly basis, and a decision support system that is used to monitor pigs’ growth (to compare it with the expected growth) and to choose the right feed mix to be offered to the pigs. Feeding pigs a mixture of two feeds, blended according to their weight, is a practice that has the potential to optimise performance by reducing lysine intake and nitrogen excretion more than 20% thanks to a more precise feeding. Weight information can be used for testing different feed mixes and for selection of the large pigs that are send to slaughter earlier. Pig weighing in a regular basis also offers the possibility for more accurate early warning of upcoming diseases or veterinary interventions (dosing of medicaments is linked to the animals’ body weight in almost all of the cases), resulting in diseases having a lower impact on feed and growth efficiency.

Source Project
EU PIG: EU Pig Innovation Group: Thematic Network to support the implementation of Innovative Practice into EU Pig Production
Ongoing | 2016-2020
Main funding source
Horizon 2020 (EU Research and Innovation Programme)
Geographical location
United Kingdom
Project details

Project Keywords