Liquid diets fed prior to weaning enhance performance of weaned piglets

Abstract

Creep feeding enhances weaning weight (King et al., 1998) and may also enhance early post-weaning growth rate, both of which are positively correlated to subsequent performance (Miller et al., 1999). When preweaning feeds are offered, current practice in the UK is to feed either dry feed from day 14 to weaning or acidified milk replacer from days 3 to 18. Intakes of dry feed pre-weaning are generally low whereas liquid feeds are consumed more readily. Our objectives were 1) to offer creep feed as a gruel to test whether this would enhance intake of creep and provide an alternative to milk replacer, and 2) to provide all three forms of supplementary feeding together to determine whether this further increased performance. Piglets receiving no supplementary pre-weaning feed were the negative control.