The performance of group-housed sows offered a high fibre diet ad libitum

2000 ◽  
Vol 70 (1) ◽  
pp. 85-93 ◽  
Author(s):  
X. Whittaker ◽  
S. A. Edwards ◽  
H. A. M. Spoolder ◽  
S. Corning ◽  
A. B. Lawrence

AbstractAs a part of a study investigating the extent to which ad libitum feeding of a high fibre diet could mitigate behavioural problems associated with food restriction, the performance of sows given food at restricted or ad libitum levels was compared. Ten subgroups of five were allocated to each of the restricted (R) and ad libitum (A) feeding regimes. Five weeks after service, subgroups were introduced into one of two dynamic groups of sows housed in adjacent straw-bedded pens. R sows received a fixed daily ration (parity 1: 2·2 kg; parity 2: 2·4 kg) of a conventional pregnancy diet (13·1 MJ digestible energy per kg) from an electronic sow feeder. Sows on the A regime had unrestricted access to five single-space hoppers dispensing a high fibre diet (containing 600 g unmolassed sugar beet pulp per kg). Subgroups were maintained on these gestation feeding regimes for two consecutive parities. During both parities, A sows were heavier by day 50 of gestation (parity 1: P < 0·05; parity 2: P < 0·01) and at farrowing (parity 1: P < 0·001; parity 2: P < 0·001) than R sows. No difference was found between feeding regime in sow weight at weaning, due to a greater weight loss during lactation of A (parity 1: P < 0·001; parity 2: P < 0·001) than R sows. No difference was found between feeding regime in sow backfat thickness, sow reproductive performance or litter performance in either parity. This suggests that unmolassed sugar beet pulp diets may be used to feed sows on an ad libitum basis during gestation without compromising productivity. However, food intakes may be too high (estimated at 4·1 kg per sow per day) to make ad libitum feeding of pregnant sows an attractive option for producers.

Author(s):  
R.M. Kay ◽  
P.H. Simmins ◽  
J.I. Harland

There has been an increasing interest in recent years in the feeding of bulky, high fibre diets to sows for both economic and animal welfare reasons. The potential of the pregnant sow to utilise sugar beet pulp, a highly digestible, high fibre by-product has previously been investigated (Close et al 1990, Edwards et al 1990). However, in both these investigations, the feeding of the high fibre diet was restricted to the pregnant sow and conventional diets were fed throughout lactation. The main objective of this trial was to assess the effect of substituting cereal and cereal by-products with molassed sugar beet feed (SBF) throughout pregnancy and lactation, on the condition and performance of both gilts and adult sows.


1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 ◽  
pp. 178-178
Author(s):  
A H Stewart ◽  
S A Edwards ◽  
V R Fowler

The once bred gilt system of production has a number of benefits in terms of feed efficiency and welfare, however the system relies on the production of a quality carcass and acceptable reproductive performance. Previous studies have indicated that welfare might be improved if gilts were ad-libitum fed a diet containing 60% Sugar beet pulp (Stewart et al 1993). There was a suggestion however that reproductive physiology may be put at risk using such a diet. The objective of this experiment was to identify differences in reproductive performance using two different energy sources in gestation and to manipulate nutrition during lactation to study the effect on carcass quality.


Author(s):  
T. Yan ◽  
A. C. Longland ◽  
W. H. Close ◽  
C. E. Sharpe ◽  
H. D. Keal

There is a considerable current interest in the feeding of high fibre diets to pregnant sows, with a view to gaining both economic and welfare advantages. The potential use of these diets will depend on the extent to which the fibrous materials are fermened in the hindgut, and the subsequent capacity of the products of the fermentation, that is VFAs, to meet the energy needs of the animal. Sugar beet pulp and wheat straw are two ingredients that have considerable potential as feed ingredients for sows. The present experiment was designed to study the extent to which diets containing high level of non-starch polysaccharides (NSP), largely from plain sugar beet pulp (SBP) or wheat straw (WS), influenced nutrient partition and the efficiency of ntrient utilisation in pregnant sows.


Author(s):  
B P Gill ◽  
A G Taylor ◽  
B Hardy ◽  
J G Perrott

Satisfactory levels of performance and improved carcass and meat eating quality in growing pigs fed high levels of sugar beet pulp (SBP) have been recently demonstrated by Kay et al. (1990) and Longland et al. (1991). One of the main advantages from feeding SBP was a reduction in carcass fatness and increased returns from improved grading. The objective of this work was to determine whether these benefits could be sustained to heavier finishing weights and to compare differences in the response to SBP as a source of readily fermentable non-starch polysaccharides (NSP) and to oat feed (OF), a cereal by-product high in insoluble NSP, which is less easily degraded.


Author(s):  
F Brouns ◽  
S A Edwards ◽  
P R English

Dominance allows animals priority of access to resources when these are limited. It is common practice to feed dry sows once or twice daily a relatively small amount of food. This can lead to high competition for food, when there are no provisions for individual feeding of group housed sows. In contrast, competition for food should be low when offeredad libitum.This study was designed to investigate the effect of feeding regime on the measurement of hierarchies in group housed dry sows.Four groups of 12 multiparous sows were housed in deep straw pens (3.1 m2/sow). Two groups were offered a high fibre dietad libitumfrom a three-space hopper (LC) and two groups were floor-fed 3 kg/sow of a standard diet once daily (HC). The diet composition is given in Brouns et al (1992).Groups were allocated to treatment after service. After two months on treatment, the dominance of every sow in each pen was determined in a feed competition test between all possible dyads of sows. A more detailed description of this test is given in Brouns et al (1992). The results of this test indicated how many pen mates each sow dominated (DR). This was used to calculate an index of linearity for the hierarchy (Appleby, 1983) giving a value between 0 and 1, where 1 indicates a completely linear hierarchy.


2009 ◽  
Vol 132 (1-2) ◽  
pp. 66-73 ◽  
Author(s):  
F.X. Philippe ◽  
B. Canart ◽  
M. Laitat ◽  
J. Wavreille ◽  
M. Vandenheede ◽  
...  

2013 ◽  
Vol 25 (8) ◽  
pp. 1216 ◽  
Author(s):  
A. C. Weaver ◽  
J. M. Kelly ◽  
K. L. Kind ◽  
K. L. Gatford ◽  
D. J. Kennaway ◽  
...  

Inclusion of high levels of the high-fibre ingredient sugar-beet pulp in pre-mating diets has been shown to increase gonadotrophin concentrations and improve oocyte quality in nulliparous pigs (gilts). This study evaluated the effects of two alternative fibre sources on reproductive performance in gilts. Gilts received one of three diets from 3 weeks before puberty stimulation until Day 19 of the first oestrous cycle: control (39 g kg–1 fibre), bran (500 g kg–1 wheat bran, 65 g kg–1 fibre) or lupin (350 g kg–1 lupin, 118 g kg–1 crude fibre). Diet did not affect circulating LH concentrations or ovarian follicle size. However, a higher percentage of oocytes collected from lupin-supplemented gilts reached metaphase II in vitro compared with those collected from bran-fed or control gilts (89 ± 5% versus 72 ± 5% and 66 ± 5%, respectively; P < 0.05). Furthermore, in a second experiment, gilts fed the same lupin-based diet before mating had improved embryo survival (92 ± 5%) on Day 28 after mating compared with control gilts (76 ± 4%; P < 0.05). Therefore, feeding a high-fibre diet before mating can improve oocyte quality in gilts without changes in circulating LH, but this effect is dependent on the fibre source.


1995 ◽  
Vol 1995 ◽  
pp. 178-178
Author(s):  
A H Stewart ◽  
S A Edwards ◽  
V R Fowler

The once bred gilt system of production has a number of benefits in terms of feed efficiency and welfare, however the system relies on the production of a quality carcass and acceptable reproductive performance. Previous studies have indicated that welfare might be improved if gilts were ad-libitum fed a diet containing 60% Sugar beet pulp (Stewart et al 1993). There was a suggestion however that reproductive physiology may be put at risk using such a diet. The objective of this experiment was to identify differences in reproductive performance using two different energy sources in gestation and to manipulate nutrition during lactation to study the effect on carcass quality.


1999 ◽  
Vol 1999 ◽  
pp. 140-140
Author(s):  
J. J. Hyslop ◽  
D. Cuddeford

There is increased interest in using sugar beet pulp (SBP) products as forage replacers in equine diets. Previous work (Hyslop et al 1998) has indicated that SBP products may suppress voluntary feed intake (VFI) in ponies when they are the major fibre source at between 550-700 g/kg total diet dry matter (DM). This study examines VFI and apparent digestibility in vivo where soaked unmolassed sugar beet pulp (USBP) was offered as a partial forage replacement to ponies receiving ad libitum grass hay.Four mature Welsh-cross pony geldings (280 kg LW s.e. 6.6) were individually housed and offered 0.86 kg/d of micronised barley (MB) and given ad libitum access to grass hay (HAY). In addition, ponies were offered either 0, 1, 2, or 3 kg/d USBP (U0, U1, U2 and U3 respectively) according to a 4 x 4 latin square changeover experimental design.


1992 ◽  
Vol 54 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-13 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. C. Garnsworthy ◽  
C. D. Huggett

AbstractTwenty-four Friesian dairy cows were divided into two groups of 12 between 12 and 18 weeks prior to calving and fed to achieve condition scores at calving of 3·2 (F) or 2·3 (T). For the first 11 weeks of lactation, six cows from each group (H) were given daily 9 kg of a high-fat compound (acid ether extract (AEE) 96 g/kg dry matter (DM)), 3 kg molassed sugar-beet pulp and hay ad libitum. The other six cows in each group (L) were given 10 kg of a low-fat compound (AEE 29 g/kg DM), 2 kg sugar-beet pulp and hay ad libitum. Allowances of compound and sugar-beet pulp were designed to provide equal amounts of energy, neutral-detergent fibre and protein. The fat source used in compound H was a calcium salt of palm acid oil (Megalac®).DM intake was not affected by treatment but fat intake was significantly higher on diet H (P < 0·001). Group TH had higher intakes of digestible energy (DE) than group FH (249 v. 229 MJ/day; P < 0·05), but condition at calving did not affect DE intake with diet L (FL = 230, TL = 233 MJ/day). Milk yield was not significantly affected by treatment, although cows in group TL tended to yield less milk than other groups (28·3, 27·3, 28·0 and 24·3 kg/day for FH, FL, TH and TL respectively). The concentration of milk fat was higher and of milk protein lower with diet H compared with diet L (milk fat 48·1, 42·2, 42·9 and 39·6; milk protein 28·0, 31·0, 28·4 and 30·5 g/kg for FH, FL, TH and TL respectively). Loss of condition score was greater for cows in group F (0·65 units) than for those in group T (0·04 units). Within group F, loss of condition tended to be greater with diet L.It is concluded that the increased intake of fat with diet H tended to decrease loss of condition in cows that were fat at calving but increase milk yield in cows that were thin at calving. It also tended to increase milk fat concentration but decreased milk protein concentration.


Sign in / Sign up

Export Citation Format

Share Document