Growth follows the feed curve for better returns

摘要

Installing weigh scales in pig pens has helped a Oxfordshire pig producer boost performance. Using specially designed scales to monitor daily growth rates is helping one Oxfordshire farming family improve its pig-feeding system and identify ways to improve herd performance more easily. Tom Allen, who farms in partnership with his father, uncles and cousins near Wallingford, Oxfordshire, installed two weighing crates in one of their farm's weaner and finisher pens to monitor daily weight gain and helpspot where changes in feeding were needed. The 3,500-place weaning-to-fin-ishing unit runs a three-phase liquid feeding system in an effort to minimise stress to the herd and improve performance. However, Mr Allen was struggling to identify exactly where further changes needed to be made to the farm's feed curves to improve performance.