Enhancing Post-weaning Feed Intake

It is essential to get the weaned pig rapidly adapted to its new existence post-weaning.

Feeding space – weaning until day 3
	Provide trough sufficient so that all the newly weaned pigs can eat at once. Provide 10 cm per pig – note the trough can allow pigs to eat from both sides – therefore 5 cm per pig. Thus for each 20 pigs provide 1 m of trough space
	The extra trough can be simply designed from plastic guttering; 12 cm wide supported by 35 cm long, 6 cm wide platforms.
	If the floor is slotted, 15 cm long nails can be driven through the platform feet to hold the trough in place.
Components of the gruel
	Consistency of the gruel		Component of the gruel	Volume of gruel per 100 pigs
	Water	Solid	Solid: any good quality early starter creep diet. 24% protein, 18DE. Highly digestible ideally with a high milk component
Day 1	50%	50%		Day 1	2 litres every 2 hours
Day 2 1-3 feed 4-6 feed	40%	60%		Day 2	2.5 litres every 2 hours
	30%	70%	Liquid: Fresh water. May be substituted with dairy by-products – out of date milk, cream, and yogurt for example. Chocolate by-products are also excellent.
Day 3 1-2 feed 3-4 feed	30%	70%		Day 3	2.5 litres every 3 hours
	20%	80%
Day 4		100%		Day 4	2.5 kg of dry feed
It is important to avoid contaminated water – which may cause feed refusal
Feeding protocols
Day of weaning
1	Wean the pigs and allow 2 hours for the weaners to acclimatize to their new environment. Ideally make several drinkers leak so the weaners are attracted to them. No drinker should be elevated or requiring a step up. Turkey drinkers can be very useful.
2	After 2 hours go into the weaner pen and call the weaners by voice. Tap on the feed bucket and pour the gruel into the trough, filling the whole length of the trough. The weaners will rapidly come up to you and start swarming around you and the trough. Stay still and gently talk to the weaners.
	It is essential that only sufficient food be placed in the trough that the weaners will eat in 10 minutes. If the trough is cleaned up within 10 minutes, at the next feed, increase volume by 20%. Place dry creep feed in the normal feeders by hand.
3	Repeat step 2 at 1.5 hour intervals
Weaners not eating
	Note and mark all weaners who shy away from the trough and refuse to eat at the first 2 occasions.
	At the 3^rd time pick up all the weaners who have refused to eat. Place the weaner by the feed trough and encourage, using fingers if necessary, the weaner to eat.
End of the first day of weaning
	After the 3^rd feeding opportunity is finished, turn off the lights to encourage the weaners to sleep.
2^nd Day
	Feed gruel to the pigs every 2 hours. Therefore, feed 6 times today.
	Note the increases in volume and dryness of the feed.
	At the end of the day, switch off the lights again and allow the pigs to sleep
	The feeding interval is intended to prevent the weaners from screaming after their lost mothers.
	Increase the amount of feed in the normal feeders – still fed by hand

3^rd Day
	Continue feeding gruel and extend the feeding interval to every 3 hours – therefore 4 times today. Turn on normal creep feeders.
4^th day
	Feed only one gruel feed 2 hours after daybreak. Observe the weaner’s behaviour. If the pigs are well settled, no further manual feeding is required. Ensure normal feeders are working and adjusted as normally required.
	Weaners eating out of a trough feeder/ Be concerned about the pig arrowed.	Trough feeder when not in use. Note additional water supplied also by a trough
Caring for the lower order pigs
	If the bottom 10% of pigs at weaning are streamed into a separate environment, it is possible to modify the gruel-feeding programme to cover 7 days, rather than the 3 days proscribed. Note, however, it is essential to get the pig’s eating normal creep feed as soon as possibly, otherwise a double weaning event will occur, which will put the pig’s back significantly
Disadvantages or problems
	If gruel feeding is continued too long a double weaning event will occur.
	The gruel feed costs a lot of money and it is essential it is only used to ensure all the weaned pigs learn to eat normal quantities of creep feed post-weaning
	If diarrhoea starts check product quality and reduce the interval of feedings
	If pigs do not eat up the volume within 10 minutes, reduce next feed volume by 10%
	If there is too much food provided you are cheating on the human time element – resulting in a loss of the weaner’s normal behaviour
	None talkative stockpeople do not mimic the sow’s normal calling behaviour
Why put this much effort into the first five days post-weaning?
	To reduce the incidence of post-weaning ill-thrift.
	To enhance the growth of the pigs to finish. Good feed intake (>250 g a day) in the first week is worth over 10 days to finish at 100 kg liveweight
	Ill-thrift in a weaner - starved	Empty stomach and intestines