Piglait milk replacers promote consumption of creep feed

Results from practice show the positive impact on number of eaters

Weaning is a very stressful period for young piglets: no more sow’s milk, a new environment, new pen mates, and only solid feed available. Not every piglet is ready for that huge change. A temporary fasting period and low feed intake in weaning piglets negatively impact performance and gut health. To prepare piglets as much as possible for weaning, they need to learn to eat dry feed before weaning. Yet in practice, although creep feed is provided, intake often remains disappointing. Especially when piglets are weaned at young age, many don’t start eating it. Fortunately, providing piglet milk replacers could encourage (dry) feed intake, even already at young age. Milk replacers, being more similar to sow’s milk, can serve as a first step towards feed exploration. Especially automated systems such as Piglait’s automated Cup System with continuous (24/7) access to freshly prepared milk, can be considered as an optimal way to stimulate the young animals to eat. After experiencing to drink milk from a cup, the step to further explore dry feed will be more easy.

The effect of Piglait milk replacers via its automated Cup System on the number of eaters

In a recent practical trial on a sow farm with TN70 sows, a comparison was made between control piglets, not provided with milk replacers, and piglets with access to Piglait Blue and Piglait Green (Piglait milk replacers of the Robust Litter Line), via Piglait’s automated Cup System. Both groups of piglets were provided with dry creep feed twice daily from 6 days of age till weaning (at approximate 21 days of age). The supplied amount of dry feed was recorded per litter. During the trial, in total 800 piglets (TN70xTempo) from 59 sows were followed: 396 control piglets and 404 milk replacer piglets. All of these piglets were weighed individually at 4 days of age and at weaning. Additionally, at weaning a rectal swab was taken to determine if a piglet had eaten dry feed or not. When the rectal swab was covered with light to dark brown manure, containing coarse textured particles, the piglet was classified as eater. For swabs with yellowish manure without textured particles, the piglet was classified as non-eater. For some swabs, it was difficult to make the distinction, e.g. because almost no manure was present. In that case, piglets were classified as undefined.

  Results of the practical trial

In the control group, 50.5% of piglets were identified at weaning as eaters and 20.5% as non-eaters. For the piglets with access to the automated Cup System, 67.3% of piglets were eaters while only 6.4% of piglets were non-eaters. These highly significant differences clearly show that providing Piglait Blue and Piglait Green milk replacers via Piglait’s automated Cup System encouraged more individual piglets to consume feed, and that it’s possible, even at young age, to diminish non-eaters and ensure almost all piglets are eating at weaning.

The consumed amount of dry feed per litter was also higher for the piglets receiving Piglait milk via the Cup System, with on average 152 grams per piglet, compared to 119 grams per piglet in the control group. This consumption of dry feed is additionally to the piglet milk replacer itself, which also provided already a dry matter intake of on average 206 grams per piglet.

Looking at the weaning weights, the higher feed intake also resulted in a better pre-weaning performance. Control piglets weighed on average 5.37 kg at weaning, while piglets from the milk replacer group had an average weaning weight of 6.25 kg.

Benefits of piglet milk replacer

For a good transition at weaning, piglets should already be trained to eat during their suckling period. Piglets that already consume solid feed will not only start eating sooner after weaning, but will also have a better developed gastrointestinal tract, which will reduce the incidence of problems such as weaning diarrhea.

Supplementation of Piglait milk replacer increases the consumed amount of dry feed and the total dry matter intake (including piglet milk replacer) in the pre-weaning period. Importantly, it was observed that this higher feed intake was also accompanied with an increased number of eaters. More eaters before weaning means a smoother start afterwards, with stronger, more resilient piglets. Also, the higher body weights at weaning of piglets provided with Piglait milk replacer indicate animals are more robust and better prepared for a smooth weaning process.