Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

It is possible to affect the feed costs in different ways. By steeping or fermentation the digestibility of the feed is improved for the animals with a natural process in the wet feeding system Steeping means that the feed is soaked some hours before feeding. This process activates
enzymes and improves the digestibility of for example phosphorus in the feed and make it more accessible to the animal. Wet feeding can be fermented or not. Fermentation
means that the feed has been soaked for a certain length of time so that a biological process is started. Fermentation can be either spontaneous or controlled. In the case of
spontaneous fermentation, only the existing bacterial culture affect the acid composition in the wet feed. Controlled fermentation means that a bacterial culture is added to promote lactic acid production and to reduce pH.

Residues must not remain in the feed lines because it will continue to ferment. The microbiological activity will then reduce the feed content of amino acids, for example
lysine is consumed up to 10% before the feed reach the animal, resulting in an impaired growth in the animals. Wet feed should have a pH between 4,5 to 5. If this value is
exceeded, you can get problems with microbiological activity and growth of harmful bacteria. This can cause diarrhea and death in the herd. When using methods as steeping or fermentation, the result is positive for both the animals and the environment. Phosphorus is a substance which, when spreading manure, may not exceed the allowed
amount of 22 kg per hectare.

In order to affect the food cost, you need to know how much energy the animal utilize from the feed. Therefore a system for energy evaluation of the feed, that is as accurately
as possible is important. For this reason, the Swedish pig production recently has changed energy evaluation system from metabolic energy to net energy. In the previous
system, the energy in protein feeds was overestimated and the sows' ability to utilize energy in fiber better than growing pigs was not taken into account.
Within the new system there is two ways of calculating the energy value, sows and boars have one, and growing pigs up to 150 kg have another.

The purpose of this study was to study if pig farmers think they have sufficient knowledge of their feeding system to use all the features, and if they themselves can overcome the errors that may occur.
To investigate what the pig farmers think about the usability of their wet feeding programs, a questionnaire with questions on that topic was designed. People within the
pig industry was contacted and asked for suggestions on 20 farms that could participate in the study. Ten farms with 100 sows, and 10 with over 200 sows in the herd were
selected. The farms were situated in Värmland, Västra Götaland, Halland and Skåne. Telephone interviews with the selected farms, with the questionnaire as a basis, were
made. A total of 13 questionnaires were fully answered.
Of the interviewed farmers, four of them had experience from several manufacturers of wet feeding systems. Eleven had sometime called support for help with the feeding
system and many of these farmers commented that it was in this way they have learned
how to solve problems with the feeding system. Twelve had a manual, but five of these manuals were not fully translated into Swedish or were written in another language.

The general conclusion is that the feeding systems are reliable, as long as the user monitor, that there is feed enough. The results of the survey show that most farmers,
even those that have a new wet feeding system, think it is difficult to find solutions to problems by means of using the manual. This is surprising and should have been
improved over the years, especially since new feeding systems have more features.