January 24, 2008

Pigs fed on liquid feed do not drink more water

The conclusion came from a study by the Dutch Livestock Boards for Livestock, Meat and Eggs (PVE), which are important for future regulation for provision of water in conjunction with liquid feeding.

Finishers fed with liquid feed absorb more water than they require. However, European regulations said that pigs must have access to water at all times.

This can lead to higher feed costs and as a result, a study was carried out by the Animal Science Group on behalf of the PVE in 2006 and 2007 to probe the motivation of finishers to drink more water.

An extra water bowl would be placed in the pen, and the speed of flow of the water was changed on a weekly basis between 130, 360, 730 and 1040 millilitres per minutes. If the pigs drank more water at a lower flow rate, this was considered as a measure of motivation.

Long trough, sensory feeding and variomix liquid feeding systems were used, and the results were taken from 48 pens with 12 pigs.

In total, the pigs fed on liquid feed, used 7.3 litres water per day and the pigs fed on 4.7 litres of dry feed, including water from feed.

Consumption from the extra drinking bowl amounted to 0.6 and 3.4 litres per day respectively. At the lowest flow rate, consumption is about 0.3 to 1.9 litres per day.

The water consumption speed was low, and there was no recorded difference with liquid feed and dry feed. If an extra drinking bowl for dry fed pigs is not necessary, it would be the same case for liquid fed pigs.

Not only were the pigs not motivated for extra water, but the water consumption speed is so low that an additional water bowl do not give any advantages.