The behavioural and production responses of finishing pigs to increasing workload to obtain food ad libitum from hopper feeders

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AbstractTwo randomized-block experiments were carried out with growing pigs housed in groups of 10 from about 36 to 92 kg live weight and offered non-pelleted diets from single-space feeders containing separate food and water dispensers both operated by the pigs. The dispensing rate of food could be adjusted and rates of 1·4, 2·7 and 5·3 g per press of the nose plate were compared in experiment 1 and 4·8, 6·9 and 9·3 g per press compared in experiment 2. As dispensing rate increased in experiment 1 there were significant increases in food intake, growth rate and backfat thickness and a significant improvement in food conversion ratio on a carcass gain basis. There was no effect on the variation in growth rate between pigs within pens nor were there treatment effects in experiment 2 on any of the above measurements. The amount of food accumulating in troughs increased with feeder setting in both experiments.Behaviour at feeders was observed in each pen for 24 h during the 5th week using time-lapse video recording. The number of visits to feeders was not significantly affected in either experiment but time spent feeding was significantly increased at the lowest setting in experiment 1. Both the number of withdrawals from feeders accompanied by aggressive encounters and the number of pigs queuing decreased up to the dispensing rate of 6·9 g per press. There were tendencies for all parameters of behaviour to continue changing up to the highest dispensing rate.