The increasing litter size in pig farming has greatly boosted reproductive performance in recent decades.However, increasing litter size has caused a decline in birth weight. The litter number has also increased so much that more piglets are regularly born than a sow has weaned. The number of piglets a sow has more than she has weaners to feed her piglets is called the number of surplus piglets. Excess piglets have limited access to milk, which means they will grow poorly and increase the risk of mortality.
There are several strategies to deal with surplus piglets. The pig farmer can shift piglets to get a better distribution. In addition, there are other options such as setting up a foster sow, alternate suckling, supplementary feeding, preweaning, incubators, rescue decks, milk cups, ... In all systems, the objective is to wean all piglets as strongly as possible.Important in this is that the piglets are uniform. After all, great diversity in weights causes the big piglets to dominate the smaller ones. The stronger piglets will also be able to appropriate the front teats. Since these milk compartments often contain more milk than the rear ones, these piglets will additionally strengthen at the expense of the other piglets. The survey shows that several pig farmers experience difficulties in raising their piglets to weaning age. Especially the smaller piglets often cause difficulties.
Most pig farmers are satisfied with their current approach to piglet rearing. General agreement is that the high-yielding sows require more care and their piglets also have more care. As a result, it is often searching for a good system on one's own farm to arrive at an ideal system. This system depends on the wishes of the individual pig farmer and here animal friendliness, hygiene, growth, labour and convenience are mainly taken into account.
This study focused on methods of supplementary feeding. 4 Different supplementary feeds were tested. The results showed differences in bacterial composition in the piglets' faeces samples. Differences in growth rate of the animals until weaning were also found. The main advantage of supplementary feed is the faster start-up in the finishing phase as the pigs are already used to taking in pellets and meal.
