Better Pork - June 2016

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Better Pork June 2016 47
EYE ONEUROPE
feeding units in integrated antibiotic-
free production. Even with the planned
2,000 hogs per week output, this repre-
sents only a tiny proportion of Danish
Crown’s 22 million hogs per year. The
co-operative has isolated the antibiotic-
free production so far; current produc-
ers are situated on the island of Born-
holm in the Baltic Sea.
Weaners thrive on liquid
feed plus straw pellets
Liquid feeding systems are firm favou-
rites on German swine farms. In many
units, even suckling sows get all rations
via pump and pipeline. The strategy
definitely saves labour. But wouldn’t the
animals perform better with some real
fibre in their diets?
Research aimed at improving
pork-production efficiency regularly
examines the influence of added fibre
on performance. Here in Europe, we’ve
seen alfalfa hay, grass pellets and corn
silage tried out as supplement to liquid
diets for swine. Nowadays, straw is
common in hog pens as “play material”
to decrease aggression, but it is not seen
as part of the diet.
When alfalfa hay and the like have
been used, any performance gains have
been minimal, admit researchers in
Bavaria’s State Institute for Agriculture
in Schwartenau. But they decided to
take another shot at assessing possible
advantages by offering straw pellets to
otherwise liquid-fed weaners from 10 to
over 28 kilograms liveweight in a com-
mercial feeding regime.
The surprise result was that weaners
which were offered straw pellets con-
tinually increased their consumption
of the very low-energy (1.92 MJ and
37 grams crude protein per kilogram)
straw and their intake of liquid feed was
more than the intake of control groups
without straw supplement. While no
significant financial gain from offering
supplementary straw pellets could be
demonstrated by the Bavarian research-
ers, the action proved to have very
low extra labour input and the pellets
created little dust or dirt nuisance, en-
couraged extra feed intake and possibly
diverted weaners from fighting amongst
Researchers in Bavaria’s State
Institute for Agriculture in
Schwartenau are assessing
possible advantages of added
fibre on performance by offering
straw pellets to otherwise
liquid-fed weaners from 10 to
over 28 kilograms liveweight in
a commercial feeding regime.