More piglets survive when using a milk replacer

An impressive 5% more piglets survived using AB Neo’s Pump'n'Grow milk cup system and DanMilk Supreme milk replacer.

More live piglets, fewer suckling sows and higher weaning weights are three reasons to invest in a milk cup system and supplement the sow's milk with a milk replacer, says AB Neo who has demonstrated these results in a recently completed trial.

The trial was carried out on a sow unit north of Herning, Denmark, says Jørn Madsen, Senior Technical Manager, AB Neo Denmark. The experiment was run three times with 8 sows in each control group and 8 in each experimental group. Over the total of 24 sows in the experimental group, the piglets received DanMilk Supreme via the Pump’n’Grow milk system to ensure the trial was as realistic and relevant as possible.

The piglets received milk replacer from day 0 to day 21, and then they were weaned on day 26.

Good results

Each litter was standardised so that there was an average of 13.96 pigs per litter in the experimental group and 13.84 pigs in the control group.

The litter weight on day 0 was a total of 19.5 kg in the milk group, corresponding to 1.37 kg per pig, whilst in the group that was not offered milk, it was 19.25 kg, corresponding to 1.39 kg per pig.

The pigs were weighed on days 21 and 26. On day 21 the litter weight was 73.19 kg in the milk group and 67.26 kg in the non-milk group.

By day 26, the difference had risen again – the litter weight was 85.43 kg in the milk group, while the pigs that had not received milk replacer weighed a total of 78.2 kg, says Jørn Madsen.

This weight difference was seen even though the pigs did not receive extra milk between days 21-26. One explanation could be a higher feed intake and, thus, growth in the pigs that had received DanMilk Supreme up to day 21.

There are many numbers to deal with, but overall, there is a difference in litter weight of 7.23 kg and 0.81 more pigs per litter in the litters that received the milk replacement, states Jørn Madsen.

Do you dare not?

- The experiment by Søren Hansen shows that five percentage points more pigs have survived compared to the control group, which did not receive milk replacer. This means that there are 0.8 more pigs in self-weaning, which corresponds to approx. 1.2 days older at weaning, explains Jørn Madsen.

- The most important thing is that we increased the amount of pigs that survived. It is known from studies both in Denmark and internationally that piglets do not survive as a result of starvation in the first few days, and this is being improved here.

At the same time, he also emphasises that when using milk replacer, fewer nursing sows are needed.

- As a pig producer, you increase your own weaning weights and increase the number of piglets that survive by 0.81 per litter according to this trial, so I would ask if you can afford not to?

THE FACTS

The trial showed that by using Pump'n'Grow and DanMilk Supreme you can expect:

• Higher weights at weaning

• Increase in more live piglets

• The sows wean up to 4 extra piglets per year

Pump'n'Grow and DanMilk Supreme were used in the experiment. If you want to hear more about Pump'n Grow and our DanMilk, you are always welcome to contact us.