A research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada says, by formulating rations for each pig individually producers can dramatically cut their overall feed costs.
As part of a multi disciplinary research project, being conducted on behalf of Swine Innovation Porc, scientists are developing a precision feeding system for pigs designed to maximize nutrient efficiency.
Dr. Candido Pomar, research scientist with Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada at Sherbrook, notes feed mills typically offer wide variety of formulations to accommodate different genotypes, different stages of growth and various levels of performance.
With precision feeding we are going to have only two feeds, one feed that is going to be concentrated in nutrients so, normally we don’t do that, but just to simplify the understanding, one of the feeds has to be formulated for the most demanding pig when it is the most demanding during its growing, so it is at the beginning of the growing period.
The second feed is one that is going to be very low in nutrients so as to satisfy the requirements of the less demanding pigs when this pig is the less demanding, so at the end of the growing period. You have two feeds that are extreme, one highly concentrated in nutrients and another is low. Then by blending you can obtain all the range of concentration of nutrients.
If we apply this system to the industry, it’s going to simplify the work of mills because they are going to have only two feeds, the same for all the growing periods, for all the farms. With two feeds, if they are formulated correctly, you can be able to feed all the pigs in the province without any trouble instead of having many many feeds that today we are using.
Dr. Pomar says, by providing the nutritional requirements of each pig individually, feed costs can be dramatically reduced and performance can be more accurately predicted.
