J.D. Perkins and D.C. Mahan
Department of Animal Sciences
A study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of creep feeding pigs from 14 days of age to weaning (21 days) to evaluate the effects of retaining litters in their farrowing crates for 1 week postweaning and to provide small quantitites of fresh feed 3 times daily for the initial 3 days postweaning. The results demonstrated no beneficial effect of creep feeding or allowing the weaned pig to consume small quantities of fresh feed 3 times daily during the initial period postweaning. Remaining in the farrowing crate for 1 week postweaning appeared to be of some benefit.
Milk production in most sows is too low to support the maximum genetic potential for growth of the nursing litter. Although the milk consumed by the nursing pig is very nutritious and highly digestible, the quantity consumed may be inadequate to express the pigs' genetic potential for growth. Previous results have shown a benefit by providing a supplemental feed (creep) during the latter stages of lactation, but this research was conducted during the era when most pigs were weaned at 5 weeks of age or later and/or when sow milk production was declining naturally. With the advent of many weaning programs occurring at or before 21 days of age, sow milk production in relation to supplementing a creep to meet the needs of the nursing litter has not been investigated. An experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of providing creep feed to nursing litters in an attempt to improve their growth performance responses.
Other factors can cause stress on the weanling pig, which may be at least partially overcome by different management or feeding strategies before and after weaning. One of the methods suggested is to provide fresh feed on a "semi-restricted" daily basis during the initial period postweaning. A second strategy is to remove the sow from the farrowing crate upon weaning but leaving the litter in the crate for a week to adjust to the stresses of weaning rather than being moved immediately to a nursery upon weaning.
This study, therefore, was conducted to evaluate various feeding strategies on subsequent pig performances during the preweaning and immediate postweaning period on subsequent performance responses.
The litters from 23 purebred gilts (six Yorkshire, six Landrace, eight Duroc, three Hampshire) were used to study pre- and postweaning feeding strategies. A factorial arrangement of treatments in a 2x2x2 experiment (i.e., eight treatments) was conducted evaluating the following variables.
Factor A (Creep Feed)
Factor B (litter location at weaning, 21 days)
Factor C (feeding strategy (0 to 5 days postweaning)
After the gilts farrowed, the animals and litters were assigned to one of the eight treatment groups on the basis of breed as much as possible. Lactating gilts were provided their feed on an ad libitum basis after an initial adjustment to feed intake postpartum.
For those litters assigned to receive the creep feed, approximately 0.25 pounds of feed initially were placed on a 2 x 4 ft. plastic mat in the crate at 14 days of age. Upon consumption of the diet additional feed was provided. Feed not consumed was removed, and fresh feed was provided on a daily basis.
Upon weaning (21 days of age), half of the litters remained in their original farrowing crates (5 x 7 ft.), while the other half were placed (by litter) into elevated nursery pens (4 x 4 ft.). Nursery feeders were inserted in the farrowing crates for the appropriate litters after weaning. Although pen space per pig differed for these two treatment groups, the postweaning study was conducted for a short time period (21 days). Consequently, the pigs were not considered to be overcrowded during this experimental period.
All diet compositions are presented in Table 1. The postweaning diet was fed using two different feeding strategies. Half the litters were provided the diet on an ad libitum basis, while the other half were provided small quantities of fresh feed on a rubber mat (1 x 3.5 ft.) in front of the empty feeder. The quantity of feed provided to each pen was dependent upon what the pigs would consume within an hour of feeding. This process was repeated three times daily for 3 days, whereupon the pigs were provided free access to the diet in the feeder for the remainder of the 21-day trial.
| Table 1. Percentage composition of pig diets. | ||
| Ingredient | Creep | Postweaning |
| Corn | 31.10 | 44.80 |
| Soybean meal, 44% | 8.80 | 27.00 |
| Dried skim milk | 45.00 | . . . |
| Dried whey, edible grade | . . . | 25.00 |
| Sugar (dextrose) | 12.00 | . . . |
| Coconut oil | 1.00 | . . . |
| Dicalcium phosphate | 0.60 | 1.15 |
| Limestone | 0.20 | 0.75 |
| Se premix1 | 0.25 | 0.25 |
| Trace mineral salt2 | 0.50 | 0.50 |
| Vitamin mix2 | 0.30 | 0.30 |
| Mecadox | 0.25 | 0.25 |
| Total | 100.00 | 100.00 |
| 1 Limestone carrier.
2 Formulated to meet NRC (1988) requirements. | ||
The effect of providing a creep feed to the litters is reported in Table 2. Pig weights averaged between 8.5 to 8.9 pounds at 14 days of age. Although feed disappearance occurred at the rate of 0.09 pounds per day per pig, part of this was considered wastage. The daily gains of pigs fed creep from 14 to 21 days did not differ with the non-creep-fed groups, implying that little of the feed actually was consumed (i.e., feed disappearance). Feed disappearance ranged from 0.037 to 0.141 pounds per pig for the 7-day period. Daily gains during the immediate 3-week postweaning period also did not differ for the two groups, suggesting that creep feed access from 14 to 21 days had no particular benefit on postweaning pig performance.
| Table 2. Effect of creep feed on pig performance during the nursing and postweaning period. | |||
| Creep fed (14 days to weaning) | |||
| Item | No | Yes | SEM |
| Number of litters | 11 | 112 | . . . |
| Number of pigs/litter | 7.36 | 7.83 | . . . |
| Pig weights, pounds | |||
| 14 days | 8.4 | 8.9 | 0.3 |
| 21 days | 11.7 | 12.1 | 0.4 |
| 42 days | 24.0 | 23.7 | 0.9 |
| Average daily gain, pounds1 | |||
| 14 to 21 days | 0.48 | 0.47 | 0.03 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.59 | 0.55 | 0.03 |
| Average daily feed, pounds2 | |||
| 14 to 21 days | 0.00 | 0.09 | 0.012 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.93 | 0.90 | 0.05 |
| 1 Based on individual pig performances.
2 P < 0.01. | |||
Early creep feeding studies (Stevenson and Ellis, 1957) demonstrated a benefit to this feeding strategy, but results from more current research studies (Barnett et al., 1989; Newby et al., 1985) demonstrated no beneficial responses. These latter studies had similar feed intakes as those of our study from 14 to 21 days of age. Consequently, our results, along with those of others, suggests that there is no apparent beneficial effect on providing creep to pigs weaned at 21 days or less, particularly when sows are healthy and milking normally.
The other variable evaluated in our experiment was pig location during the initial week postweaning and subsequent performance responses in the nursery. Litters that remained in their farrowing crates for 1 week postweaning gained more weight and consumed more feed postweaning than those that were transferred to nursery pens (Table 3). Although litters remained intact in both treatment groups, the environmental effects for the two groups differed. Pigs in the nursery had less pen space per pig and temperatures that were higher (85¡F vs 72¡F) than those in the farrowing crate, respectively. However, subsequent performance responses, even when housed in similar 4 x 4 ft. nursery pens during the 28- to 42-day period also appeared to favor those litters that had remained in their initial farrowing crates. Although these results implied a possible benefit in leaving the pigs in their crates for 1 week, additional research is needed to determine if the larger pig pen space or temperature differences may have been the reason for the improved responses when pigs remained in their original locations.
When pigs were fed fresh feed at periodic intervals during the first 3 days postweaning, feed intake did not differ when the treatment group was provided feed ad libitum immediately postweaning (Table 4). Although pigs were subjected to a change of diet (form and composition) at weaning and a concurrent reduction of feed consumption was expected (Bark et al., 1986), these results suggested that even when pigs had less access to feed on a limited basis, they still consumed as much at the end of week 1 as those that were provided full access to feed. Pig gains also did not differ for the two groups for the initial week postweaning or during the overall 3-week period.
| Table 3. Effect of the litters remaining in the farrowing crates on postweaning pig performance. | |||
| Remain in crate | |||
| Item | No | Yes | SEM |
| Number of litters | 11 | 12 | . . . |
| Pigs per litter | 7.6 | 8.5 | . . . |
| Pig weights, pound | |||
| 21 days (weaning) | 12.7 | 11.1 | 0.4a |
| 42 days | 23.7 | 24.0 | 0.9 |
| Average daily gain, pounds | |||
| 21 to 28 days | 0.31 | 0.39 | 0.04 |
| 28 to 35 days | 0.59 | 0.76 | 0.03b |
| 35 to 42 days | 0.67 | 0.70 | 0.04 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.52 | 0.62 | 0.03b |
| Average daily feed, pounds | |||
| 21 to 28 days | 0.44 | 0.50 | 0.04 |
| 28 to 35 days | 0.85 | 1.01 | 0.07 |
| 35 to 42 days | 1.29 | 1.34 | 0.09 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.88 | 0.95 | 0.05 |
| a Differs significantly (P < 0.05).
b Differs significantly (P < 0.01). | |||
| Table 4. Effect of feed restrictions during the immediate postweaning period on subsequent pig performances. | |||
| Feeding strategies | |||
| Item | 3 times/day | Full feed | SEM |
| Number of pigs | 84 | 91 | . . . |
| Pig weight, pounds | |||
| 21 days | 12.2 | 11.6 | 0.4 |
| 28 days | 14.2 | 14.4 | 0.5 |
| 42 days | 24.1 | 23.6 | 0.9 |
| Average daily gain, pounds | |||
| 21 to 28 days | 0.30 | 0.39 | 0.04 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.57 | 0.57 | 0.03 |
| Average daily feed, pounds | |||
| 21 to 28 days | 0.47 | 0.48 | 0.04 |
| 21 to 42 days | 0.99 | 0.84 | 0.05 |
Bark, L.J., T.D. Crenshaw, and V.D. Eibbrandt. 1986. The effect of meal intervals and weaning on feed intake of early weaned pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 62:1233.
Barnett, K.L., E.T. Kornegay, C.R. Risley, M.D. Lindemann, and G.G. Shurig. 1989. Characterization of creep feed consumption and its subsequent effects on immune response, scouring index and performance of weanling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 67:2698.
Newby, T.J., B.G. Miller, D. Hampson, and F.J. Bourne. 1985. Local hypersensitivity response to dietary antigens in early weaned pigs. In: D.J. Cole and W. Harisign (ed.), Recent Developments in Pig Nutrition. Butterworths, London.
Stevenson, J.W., and N.R. Ellis. 1957. Effects of gestation diets and creep feeding on liveability and weight gains of suckling pigs. J. Anim. Sci. 16:877.