An economical assessment of providing suckling piglets with supplementary milk and prestarter

• Main Authors: Andreas Rohe, Engel Hessel
• Format: Article
• Language: deu
• Published: Kuratorium für Technik und Bauwesen in der Landwirtschaft e. V. 2016-06-01
• Series: Landtechnik
• Online Access: http://www.landtechnik-online.eu/ojs-2.4.5/index.php/landtechnik/article/view/3129

Fertility of sows has shown marked increases, especially during the last decade. In order to raise as many piglets as possible without resorting to nursing sows, it is extremely important to provide the piglets with a diet covering all their nutritional needs. This study examined the influence of automatically providing suckling pigs with a supplementary diet of milk and prestarter on the number of weaned piglets, their weight development and on the condition of the sow. The results were used to carry out a cost-benefit analysis. This analysis shows that automatically providing supplementary milk and prestarter led to higher weaning weights. However, the system would only be cost effective if at least <br />0.65 additional weaned piglets were raised per litter through supplementary feeding.