Effect of intelligent feeder on feed intake, body condition and production performance of lactating sows

Abstract: During lactation period, body mass and backfat loss of lactating sows were relatively severe, improving the feed intake of lactating sows is the key to improving performance of lactating sows and piglets. With the rapid development of large-scale and intensive breeding pig farms in China, the demand for intelligent feeding equipments have been increased, intelligent feeding equipments can not only save labors but also can increase the feed intake of lactating sows. In order to explore the effect of intelligent feeding on feed intake, body condition and production performance of lactating sows, different feeding modes of feed intake, reproductive performance, water consumption of sows and growth rate of piglets were measured and analyzed. 40 healthy first-born sows, including 13 Landrace pigs and 27 Large White pigs, were selected and randomly divided into 3 groups, there were 15 sows in the test group 1(5 Landrace pigs and 10 Large White pigs), 13 sows in the test group 2(4 Landrace pigs and 9 Large White pigs) and 12 sows in the control group (4 Landrace pigs and 8 Large White pigs).Test group 1 was fed with intelligent feeder (6 times per day), test group 2 was fed artificial (6 times per day) and control group was fed artificial (3 times per day). Sows in control group were fed at 7:00, 10:30 and 17:00, respectively, the amount of feeding per meal was same and was 1/3 of the total amount of feeding per day, from 1 to 7 d after farrowing, sows were fed with restricted feeding, from 8 to 21 d of lactation(weaning age), sows were fed with step up feeding scheme, the feed offered at each meal was adjusted according to the condition of the former meal, if there was no residue of feed in the feeder, the feed offered at this meal would be added within 200 g, the total feeding amount of the next day was 300-500 g more than that of the previous day in all. If there was residue more than 50% of the feed offered, a small amount of feeding or no feeding was required in the next meal. Sows in teat group 1 were fed at 5:00-7:00, 8:00-10:00, 11:00-13:00, 14:00-16:00, 17:00-19:00 and 20:00-22:00, respectively, the percent of each meal was 30%, 10%, 10%, 10%, 30% and 10% of the feed should be offered in one day, respectively. From 1 to 21 d of lactation, feed offered each day was given according to the setting feed offered. The feed offered at each meal was adjusted according to the condition of the former meal and the feed offered previous day, If the first feeding was finished according to the setting value, the feeding amount would be increased by one grade (10% of the feeding amount on the same day) and reduced by one grade if there was leftovers. Sows in test group 2 were fed at 7:00, 8:30, 10:30, 14:00, 17:00 and 20:00, respectively, and the feed offered at each meal was 1/6 of the feed offered one day. From 8 to 21 d of lactation, the feed offered at each meal was adjusted according to the condition of the former meal, if there was no residue in the feeder, the feed offered at this meal would be added within 100 g，feed offered one day would be 300～500 g more than that of the previous day in all. If there was residue more than 50% of the feed offered, no feeding was offered for the next meal. The results showed that the feed intake of artificial feeding for 3e times per day (6.46 kg) was significantly higher than that of intelligent feeding for 6 times per day (5.22 kg) under the experimental environment during the lactation days of 8-21 d (P<0.05). If only consider the daily feeding intake of lactating sows, artificial feeding for 3 times per day was better than intelligent feeding for 6 times per day. The change of body mass, backfat change, water consumption, number of total piglets, days of estrus after weaning and average daily gained of body mass of one piglet had no significant difference (P>0.05). But intelligent feeding for 6 times per day was slightly better than artificial feeding for 3 times per day in backfat change, days of estrus after weaning and average daily gained of body mass of one piglet. Ad libitum fed after farrowing perhaps could lead to anorexia which can affect the feeding intake and body condition negatively. It was necessary to use intelligent feeders under such conditions like simulating excellent experienced workers when excellent experienced workers were not easy to hire and in research work which need to collect feed parameters. Under the existing equipment investment and wage level, the intelligent feeder could replace an excellent breeder with the normal use of 4.5 a. The results can provide reference for intelligent feeding to replace experienced artificial feeding and to select feeding methods according to feeding conditions in the future.