Hostname: page-component-7479d7b7d-767nl Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-07-10T23:22:32.287Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The behavioural and production responses of finishing pigs to increasing workload to obtain food ad libitum from hopper feeders

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 September 2010

A. T. S. Morrow  and
N. Walker
A. T. S. Morrow
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR
N. Walker
Affiliation:
Agricultural Research Institute of Northern Ireland, Hillsborough, Co. Down BT26 6DR
Get access

Abstract

Two randomized-block experiments were carried out with growing pigs housed in groups of 10 from about 36 to 92 kg live weight and offered non-pelleted diets from single-space feeders containing separate food and water dispensers both operated by the pigs. The dispensing rate of food could be adjusted and rates of 1·4, 2·7 and 5·3 g per press of the nose plate were compared in experiment 1 and 4·8, 6·9 and 9·3 g per press compared in experiment 2. As dispensing rate increased in experiment 1 there were significant increases in food intake, growth rate and backfat thickness and a significant improvement in food conversion ratio on a carcass gain basis. There was no effect on the variation in growth rate between pigs within pens nor were there treatment effects in experiment 2 on any of the above measurements. The amount of food accumulating in troughs increased with feeder setting in both experiments.

Behaviour at feeders was observed in each pen for 24 h during the 5th week using time-lapse video recording. The number of visits to feeders was not significantly affected in either experiment but time spent feeding was significantly increased at the lowest setting in experiment 1. Both the number of withdrawals from feeders accompanied by aggressive encounters and the number of pigs queuing decreased up to the dispensing rate of 6·9 g per press. There were tendencies for all parameters of behaviour to continue changing up to the highest dispensing rate.

Keywords

behaviourfood intakepigs
Type
Research Article
Information
Animal Production , Volume 59 , Issue 1 , August 1994 , pp. 125 - 129
Copyright
Copyright © British Society of Animal Science 1994

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Agricultural Research Council. 1981. The nutrient requirements of pigs. Commonwealth Agricultural Bureaux, Slough.Google Scholar
Barber, J., Brooks, P. H. and Carpenter, J. L. 1991. The effect of four levels of food on the water intake and water to food ratio of growing pigs. Animal Production 52: 602 (abstr.).Google Scholar
Brett, L. P. and Levine, S. 1979. Schedule induced polydipsia suppresses pituitary-adrenal activity in rats. Journal of Comparative Physiology and Psychology 93: 946.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Collier, G. H. 1980. An ecological analysis of motivation. In Analysis of motivational processes (ed. Toates, F. M. and Haliday, C. R.), pp. 125–151. Academic Press, London.Google Scholar
Collier, G. H., Hirsch, E. and Hamlin, P. H. 1972. The ecological determinants of reinforcement in the rat. Physiology and Behaviour 9: 705–716.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Dawkins, M. S. 1983. Battery hens name their price: consumer demand theory and the measurement of ethological needs. Animal Behaviour 31: 1195–1205.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Dawkins, M. S. 1988. Behavioural deprivation: a central problem in animal welfare. Applied Animal Behaviour Science 20: 209–225.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fortune, H. and Lebas, D. 1991. Single space wet feeder: effect of dosing clapper adjustment and number of pigs per device on fattening and slaughtering performance. Annales de Zootechnie 40: 318 (abstr.).Google Scholar
Horrell, I. 1992. Effects of environmental enrichment on growing pigs. Animal Production 54: 483 (abstr.).Google Scholar
Hsia, L. C. and Wood-Gush, D. G. M. 1984. The temporal patterns of food intake and allelomimetic feeding by pigs of different ages. Applied Animal Ethology 11: 271–282.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hutson, G. D. 1991. A note on hunger in the pig: sows on restricted rations will sustain an energy deficit to gain additional food. Animal Production 52: 233–235.Google Scholar
Lawrence, A. B., Appleby, M. C. and Macleod, H. A. 1988. Measuring hunger in the pig using operant conditioning: the effect of food restriction. Animal Production 47: 131–137.Google Scholar
Lawes Agricultural Trust. 1988. Genstat 5 reference manual. Clarendon Press, Oxford.Google Scholar
Nielsen, B. L. and Lawrence, A. B. 1993. The effect of group size on the behaviour and performance of growing pigs using computerised single-space feeders. Pig News and Information 14: 127N–129N.Google Scholar
Patterson, D. C. 1989. A comparison of various feeding systems for finishing pigs. Animal Feed Science and Technology 26: 251–260.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Patterson, D. C. and Walker, N. 1989. Observations of voluntary food intake and wastage from various types of self-feed hopper. In The voluntary food intake of pigs (ed Forbes, J. M., Varley, M. A. and Lawrence, T. L. J.), occasional publication, British Society of Animal Production, no. 13, pp. 114–116.Google Scholar
Walker, N. 1991. The effects on performance and behaviour of number of growing pigs per mono-place feeder. Animal Feed Science and Technology 35: 3–13.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Yang, T. S., Howard, B. and MacFarlane, W. V. 1981. Effects of food on drinking behaviour of growing pigs. Applied Animal Ethology 7: 259–270.CrossRefGoogle Scholar