A comparison of various feeding systems for finishing pigs

Abstract

In two experiments involving 288 and 480 pigs, respectively, alternative feeding systems were compared. The systems involved pellets or meal offered ad libitum from self-feed hoppers, a restricted allowance of meal or pellets from self-feed hoppers, or wet meal given in troughs or on the floor. Feed intake with the systems of feeding ad libitum was only slightly higher than with restricted feeding. In both experiments, pellets offered ad libitum through feed hoppers gave the highest growth rate and killing-out yield, and in Experiment 2 this was associated with thicker backfat. In both experiments, offering pellets through hoppers gave the most efficient feed to carcass conversion ratio (CFCR) followed by the wet-meal system in troughs, while floor-feeding of meal was the least efficient. In all cases, floor-feeding gave less efficient CFCR values than any other system within the meal, pellets or wet forms of feed. When the results of Experiments 1 and 2 were combined, dry meal given ad libitum through a hopper or with restricted feeding on the floor was 2.6 or 5.2% poorer in CFCR than meal given as wet feed in a trough. The CFCR of feed given ad libitum through a hopper was 7.1% better for pellets than for meal. The digestibility of energy in meal and pellets was 0.805 and 0.810 ± 0.0025, respectively, and therefore most of the observed improvement in CFCR with pellets was considered to have derived from a lower wastage of feed with pellets.