Dari Brown

How would you feel if one day – seemingly out of the blue – someone took away your favorite beverage and replaced it with something they said was good for you? Would you scream frustration? Would you refuse to do anything? Would you sulk? If you said, “yes”, you agree with most weaning piglets: Change can be hard. The weaning period can be challenging for pigs and ...

Weaning is a critical period in a pig’s life; the pig must cope with separation from the sow, the transition from highly digestible milk to a less digestible and more complex solid feed, a new environment, movement and separation from littermates, and exposure to unfamiliar pigs. During the first week pigs have a reduced growth rate, which is related in part to low and variable water and fee ...