ANC-143

LIVESTOCK AND POULTRY FEEDING

Take Home Exam
Name – THANT MON PAING

A.

Many factors influence litter size. These include genetics, gilt management, lactation
length, parity distribution, disease, and stress and boar fertility. There are more gilt served and
farrowed than sows of any other parity. Therefore, if gilt litter size is low, the average born alive
for the herd will be reduced. In addition, maximizing the litter size in gilts will maximize lifetime
performance .For this reason, it is important that gilt selection and management be carried out
correctly.

The single area that could be improved immediately is sow feeding. It is important that
sows are fed correctly throughout pregnancy. If over-fed during pregnancy, sows will have
depressed appetite during lactation. If underfed in pregnancy, sows will be too thin at farrowing.
The correct way to feed a pregnant sow is to match her feed allocation to her requirement for
maintenance, body growth and growth of her developing fetuses. Feeding pregnant (gestation)
sows is very important for future production. Gestation can be divided into 4 feeding stages: the
first Day 0-4 weeks (Implantation), following 5-11 weeks (condition), then increasing feed
during the next Day 12-15 weeks (growth) and in the final week (Day 107-115) (Prepare
farrowing) reducing feed.

You provided your pregnant sows 2.5 kg per day from mating until farrowing. I would
like to recommend you on the following of feeding rates.

-In the first week following mating keep the sows or gilts on a low feeding rate (2 kg/head/day)
to reduce the risk of abortion. After that, increase feeding rate to 2.5 kg/head/day to supply extra
nutrients to aid recovery from any loss in condition from the previous lactation and allow for
gilts to grow.

-During the following 8 weeks, as foetuses are still small and the sow’s maintenance requirement
is still low, the feed allowances can be reduced to 2.2kg/head/day for the older sows. However,
as the gilts and second lactation sows are still growing, the feed allowance should remain 2.5
kg/head/day.

-From 12-15 weeks of gestation increase the feed allowance to 2.5kg/head/day for older sows
and up to 2.8kg/head/day for gilts & younger sows. The increases in late gestation feed
allowance allow the extra nutrients to support the growing foetuses and will help avoid excessive
sow fatness at farrowing and impaired lactation feed intake.
- In the last week of gestation, gradually reduce feeding rates to 1.8kg/head/day and also provide
up to 1.8kg/head/day of bran for its bulkiness and to help avoid constipation. This practice will
ease the delivery of piglets and will stimulate the sows to eat more after giving birth.

Moreover, Feed quality is very important to increase litter size. Certain mycotoxins such
as zearalenone, if ingested in early pregnancy, can result in increased embryo mortality and
therefore in reduced litter size .It is advisable that sow feed and feed storage areas are kept clean,
fresh and free of molds. So, I would like to recommend that you should focus feed quality.

Lactation is the most challenging phase of the reproductive cycle, with significant energy
being needed for milk production. Daily energy requires for lactation include energy needs for
maintenance and milk production, and these needs will often exceed energy intake for at least
part of the lactation period. This high level of milk production results in daily nutrient
requirements that are about three times higher than during gestation.

The energy and nutrient requirements for milk production are directly associated with
litter growth rate. Similarly, the energy and nutrient requirements for maintenance of body
tissues in the lactating sow is directly related to sow body weight. During the lactation period,
each sow should supply between 6and 7 kg of feed per day on average. The more nutrient-dense
ration helps give the protein, energy, amino acid, vitamin and mineral levels the sows require.
Allowing the sows to eat what they need during lactation helps them to satisfy their needs on
their own. Therefore, your sows reduced a lot of weight due to energy and nutrient requirements.

I would like to recommend about ingredients in the lactation period on the following.
Lactation diets sows generally should contain ingredients that are concentrated sources of energy
and animal protein, vegetable protein such as corn and soybean meal. Feed ingredients that are
high in fiber content, such as soy hulls, oats, wheat bran, beet pulp, alfalfa hay. Note that do not
change ingredients from gestation to lactation.

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B. Nursery Pigs

A herd that weans at an average of three weeks (18 – 23 days) with an

acceptable weight should be 6.5 kg LW while the same herd weaning at 28 days (25 – 30 days)
with a weight of 7.5 kg needs. Preweaning mortality is associated with many factors such as sow
factors (parity number, colostrum yield, maternal stress, and nutrition), piglet factors (eg-birth
weight, number of litter mates, vitality and gender) ,and environmental factors (eg.housing and
management). Therefore, you should consider on factors associated with piglets pre-weaning
mortality. Your weaning weight is low and preweaning mortality is about 15% may be caused by
these factors.

Nutrition obviously, adequate milk production by the sow is critical for proper nutrition
of the piglets. Sufficient and early colostrum intake is important for piglet survival and
development. Increasing the quality of the milk that is produced is also a viable strategy to
increase nutrient availability to the piglet. Colostrum provides energy (thermoregulation,
homeostasis during the first 24 hr and growth and movement).It is the only source of IgG in
neonatal piglets. So, colostrum is very critical for performance.

You did not give creep feed because they are too expensive. Although they are expensive,
I would like to recommend creep feeding although they are too expensive. Creep feeding is the
practice of feeding a solid diet to piglets while they are suckling the sow, preparing their
digestive system for weaning. Creep feeding initiates and promotes gut and digestive enzyme
development, which enables the piglet to digest nutrients from food sources other than that of
milk.Little creep feed should be consumed before three weeks of age. However, piglets that
become eaters of creep feed have improved growth performance post-weaning compared to
piglets.

If you choose to creep feed, it is recommended that the feed be provided on a daily basis
to keep a fresh diet in front of the baby pig. Moreover, it is recommended that the same diet used
as a creep feed should be fed during the first week after weaning.

Ingredients (e.g., soybean meal and most protein sources of vegetable origin) contain
anti-nutritional factors (e.g., storage proteins glycin and beta-conglycin in soybean) that may
cause gastrointestinal inflammation. When this problem is combined with low-feed intake and
excess undigested feed, it is only natural to expect pigs to develop diarrheas.

I would like to suggest what ingredients you should use to improve your nursery
performance,

Phase Diet-1 (weaning to 5 kg)

( i)Protein

The high amino acid fortification diet necessitates multiple protein sources to meet the
youngSeveral of protein sources often are used in combination in the diet to meet the amino acid
requirements and to stimulate feed intake:, fish meal, dried whey, blood cells, poultry meal,
whey protein concentrate, spray-dried blood meal, soybean meal, and further processed soy
products. Other protein sources can certainly be used, but you should check with a nutritionist
before making any substitutions for ingredients in the diets. A high quality fish meal, poultry
meal or whey protein concentrate often is used as an additional highly digestible protein source
to encourage feed intake and achieve the correct amino acid levels. Skim milk can be replaced
with much lower cost protein sources without sacrificing pig performance.

(ii) Carbohydrate

Carbohydrates source get from corn or cereal grains .Oat products can improve stool
consistency and pig appearance.
(iii)Fat

Typically, 5 or 6 % added fat is sufficient to lubricate the pellet die. A high quality fat
source, such as choice white grease, soybean oil or corn oil, should serve as the main fat source.
Coconut oil is another excellent fat source for the young pig, but is simply too expensive to use
in the diet.

(iv) Zinc

Growth promoting levels of zinc (ZnO at 1,500 to 3,000 ppm or other Zn sources) should
often added. When zinc oxide is used for growth promotion, high levels of copper (125 ppm)
from added copper sulfate or other sources may provide an additive benefit, however the
research with both high levels of zinc and copper in the diet are conflicting. Sources of zinc,
other than zinc oxide do not appear to offer the same increase in growth performance.

(v) Organic acid

An organic acid should be added to improvements in growth performance .Organic acids
are thought to compliment the normal acid secretion in the pig’s stomach to help reduce pH
which aids in protein digestion.
Phase Diet-2 (5 to 7 kg)

The Phase 2 diet is a natural extension of the Phase 1 diet and contains many of the same
ingredients. The Phase 2 diet shouldt contain 15 to 20% lactose for optimal pig performance.
A high quality fat source (3 to 5%) should be added .As in the Phase 1 diet, antibiotics, an
organic acid, and zinc oxide and/or copper sulfate should be maintained in the Phase 2 diet for
growth promotion.

Phase Diet-3 (7 to 11 kg)

The appropriate levels of amino acids should be maintained in this diet to allow the pig
to achieve its genetic potential for lean growth. With the decrease in cost of crystalline threonine,
should be used higher levels of supplemental lysine in combination with added methionine and
threonine to maintain a high amino acid concentration while maintaining soybean meal levels
between 26 and 28 %. Fat source should be added 5%. Antibiotics, zinc oxide and copper
sulfate should arrange as growth promoters .Zinc 2,000 ppm and/or 125-250 ppm copper
is the optimal inclusion level in this phase.

Phase 4 Diet (11 to 20 kg)

The Phase 4 diet is the lowest cost diet in the nursery feeding program. Specialty
ingredients, such as blood meal,fish meal or dried whey, are cost prohibitive. The use of
specialty ingredients is unnecessary for maximal performance during this phase.

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C. Your market weight decrease 20 kg difference from another performance. Although you
lose costs for 20 kg market weigh, you have cost effect or benefit because you use it diet as much
as 30% of the diet to reduce the cost of feed, Your idea and management is okay in a moment.
Due to market fiuctation , if meat price increase, you lose costs for 20 kg than other farms.

Feed represents approximately 65 to 75% of the total cost of producing and

approximately 75% of this amount is fed in the grow-finish phase of production. Close attention
is needed to develop a nutrition and feeding management program to increase the potential for
profitability.

You put 30 pigs per pen and have 1 dry feeder in each pen and 1 nipple drinker. It is not
enough for 30 pigs per pen. You should use more. I would like to recommend three or two feeder
and drinker should be used. I think that your management putting 30 pigs perr pen is
overcrowding, Therefore, I would like to advice floor space requirement. The floor space
requirement for pigs depends on their body size, which can be related to body weight. A 240 lb
pig has a floor space requirement of approximately 8.3 ft2, whereas a 265 lb pig requires 8.9 ft2.
Lowering the amount of space per pig below the required amount will reduce performance. For
each 3% reduction in space, daily gain and daily feed intake will change approximately 1% for
pigs raised in fully slatted barns.