Q.
I ’m interested in trying creep feeding in my swine litter next spring to improve their maturation rates . Do you have any advice on implementing it ?
A.
Effective creep eating can help granger get pigs to market sooner and/or heavier . The practice involves creating an area vernal animals can “ creep ” into for self - feeding with a nutrient - dense supplement . Adult animals are excluded from the area with hog panels , cattle panels or anything else little fuzz can get through but bigger pigs ca n’t ; something metal is best so you may disinfect it between litter .
Creep feeding prepares piglets ’ intestinal tracts for the modification to solid food at weaning time , and they go developing enzyme need to stick out nonmilk foods . Without exposure to creep feed before ablactation , the dietetical variety at weaning is quite drastic and can do reduced feed intake , diarrhea , weight loss and tension , predisposing piglet to illness . With access to creep provender start out around 4 to 7 twenty-four hours of biography , piglet get used to eating solid nutrient and they establish essential enteric microbial population well before weaning . This upshot in increased daily gain and greater post - weaning provender inspiration and feed - to - gain ratio .
Why Farmers Creep Feed
Creep feeding helps denigrate weight magnetic declination among littermates . sow with expectant litter may have problem corroborate all piglets , and modest piglet on less - generative mammary glands may not grow well . memory access to high-pitched - lineament creep feed can address nutritionary deficit and keep the whole litter growing competitively .
Creep feeding can also do good sow : The extra victuals provide to her piglets submit some of the nutritionary payload off the sow , so she wo n’t lose as much dead body condition and be in good shape to rebreed on schedule . Keep in head , though , that creep eating does n’t guarantee that all bedding mates will accomplish alike weaning weights just because they have free - choice admittance to a well ration ; it just greatly improves the hazard .
Choosing The Right Creep Feed
Unless you are very experient with make and mixing homemade rations , it ’s safest to buy a commercial creep provender . Quality can vary greatly . The best have high-pitched concentration of Milk River products , particularly lactose , aka milk lucre . pellet result in less waste than meal . Commercial products have age - appropriate protein , vim , vitamin and mineral postulate by piglets , include the right-hand amount of of the essence amino acids such as lysine . If you develop your own ration , it may be you as much as a commercial ration to add together these ingredients bit by bit .
Regardless of which creep feed you use , it ’s critical to stack away it right — below 82 degrees F and below 70 percentage humidity — to keep it dry , clear and fresh . This helps forbid mold , exclude rodents and their potential for fecal contamination , and further uptake .
Advice For Doing It Right
Piglets wo n’t postulate much creep feed preweaning ; each should consume a total of about 1 pound from start to weaning at 28 days or so . If you wean early ( before 21 days of age ) , creep eating wo n’t have much welfare . More benefit is seen the previous piglets are wean .
Initially , you may have to define some piglets inside the creep area so they get familiar with going in and out of the area : Ensuring easy and rich entree to feed is paramount to this technique ’s success .
To acquaint creep to piglets , start out with a plane , disinfectable surface , such as an old biscuit tray . Locate it away from corner , water boy , heat lamps and the laxation country to keep feed fresh and reduce soilure . Put a small amount of the feed there two or three metre each 24-hour interval , when the sow is endure up and feeding and the shote ca n’t nurse . Before put fresh provender down , remove residuary feed and clean the alimentation surface .
course only as much as the piggy will run through . Do n’t offer more than the pigs deplete , but do increase provender over time as the breathing in of the piglets increase . Most of the piglet wo n’t eat up much of the creep at first , but a few will start and others will be queer and mime their littermates . Fresh feed , ample clear piddle and sanitation are very important at this stage .
supervise each piglet ’s growth and learn for poor growers because they may involve individualised boost to increase creep feed inlet . Avoid dusty feeds , and render feeding creep mashes or a gruel , which is more digestible to piglets , if they do n’t take to the creeping readily .
Feed consumption is a critical concern at once after weaning , so offer creep provender as the sole ration for a few days post - weaning to maintain intake and reduce tension and gastric upset . Gradually transition to the first post - weaning ration .
Keep unspoiled records about added feed and labor costs versus pig growth rates and prices get to fix if creep alimentation pays off for you .
For farmer who are concerned in raising pigs , two near on-line resource are thePork Industry Handbookand thePork Gateway resourcefulness page . good wishes getting your niggling shote to market !
