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Milk Supplementation to Suckling Piglets

Forum: Milk Supplementation to Suckling Piglets

Published: August 26, 2010
By: Erik Laeremans

Gaining popularity in Western Europe, but apparantly already used for many years in the U.S. is the use of automated systems for milk supplementation to suckling piglets in the farrowing room.
I would like to know from people who are using this kind of system what their experiences are. How much milk do the piglets consume, at what cost, etcetera.
Are you not using this kind of system? Then i would like to know what you think about milk supplementation.
Thank you in advance!

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Erik Laeremans
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Randall Ellis
15 de septiembre de 2010
I would like to know the same information (I am a pig farmer in Thailand)
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Edwin Grim
Ralco Nutrition
16 de septiembre de 2010
The Birthright milk and the system is available in Europe. In the Netherlands the system is disatributed and installed by Weda. van Asten in Helmond and Bennie Baak in Eibergen have started to use and test the milk. We have observed 1 kg incremental weight at weaning and significant less use of antibiotics. What else would you like to learn?
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Erik Laeremans
17 de septiembre de 2010

What else I would like to learn?
Simple, and just like a asked before. Practical experiences, not only technical results, but also the economics of the system. What does it really cost to use this system? How much milk does the piglets consume to reach the extra kilogram of weaning weight?
How does the Ralco system works? I cannot find any information of the system on the website of Weda or Ralco Nutrition. Where can I find more information?
Thank you.

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Rhea Figarola
17 de septiembre de 2010

Milk supplementation for piglets, you mean use of milk replacer in piglets as water soluble product as partial or complete substitute for sows milk. If yes, this is a practice in our country as supplementation, for sows with many litter, fostering of piglets or for improvement of piglet performances. The use of sow milk replacer reduces piglet mortality, improve piglet uniformity, stimulate solid feed intake and improves overall piglet performance.

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Jon Bergstrom
Kansas State University
Kansas State University
28 de enero de 2011

I have some experience with research on milk supplementation provided to suckling pigs. You can find useful data on this topic in the Journal of Animal Science - Azain et al., 1996 and in an abstract from the Midwest ASAS meetings in 2006 - Bergstrom et al., abstract #159. Data and experience indicate that the new systems for delivery work, but require excellent management (e.g. - sanitation/hygiene of equipment, targeted and proper utilization for pigs/litters that will actually obtain an economic benefit). Some farms using this technology a few years ago discontinued it during the last couple of years because of expense. I suspect that the expense, and some difficulty in the proper implementation and the verification or measure of the benefits on relatively large sow farms, has reduced the use over recent times.

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John Hare
J. H. Hare & Associates Ltd.
31 de enero de 2011
My company spent the last four years and untold funds trying to perfect an automated piglet milk replacer in crate delivery system to act as a vehicle to deliver our Hyper-Egg antibodies. We even have a US Patent issued. Unfortunately as mentioned by others, to be successful, management for hygene etc are critical and not easily performed in labor compromised barns. We did continually see however up to 1 kg weight advantage at weaning and with the Hyper-Egg antibodies typically an extra piglet weaned per liter. From our experience if you have the commited labor available exploring a system might be feasible. If someone is interested in continuing where we left off in this area and benefiting from our patent and experiences (both good and bad) we would be happy to talk further.
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