6. Quantity of starter and link to feed/feed budget
There is no disputing the necessity to feed nutrient-dense, milk product-rich diets in the postweaning period to ensure fast and efficient lifetime pig growth (Lawlor et al., 2002a; 2003b; 2005a). However, these diets are expensive and their overuse must be avoided. Feeding small quantities of these diets post-weaning may not maximize post-weaning performance but may be sufficient to optimize lifetime performance. Kavanagh (1995) found that pigs given 1 kg starter diet and 4 kg link diet were 2 kg lighter at 28 days post-weaning than pigs given 3 kg of starter and 8 kg link diet. However, by day 40 post-weaning this 2-kg weight advantage had been reduced to a 1-kg weight advantage and as pigs were not followed through to slaughter weight it is not known if full compensatory growth would have occurred by this time. Likewise, Lawlor et al. (2002a) compared two post-weaning dietary regimes: 1. 10kg starter followed by link to 27 days post-weaning and 2. 3kg starter followed by 10kg link followed by weaner diet to 27 days. In this experiment pig weight at day 27 was increased by 1.2kg and feed conversion efficiency was improved between weaning and day 27 post-weaning when the higher levels of starter and link were fed. However, the weight advantage was lost by day 50 post-weaning and pigs from both treatments reached target slaughter weight at the same age and had similar FCE from weaning to slaughter. This work also found that the benefit from feeding starter diet elapsed after day 10 post-weaning (Lawlor et al., 2002a)..
In a more recent study Leliveld et al. (2013) fed four different allocation levels of starter and link diet (Table 11), and found that the allocation levels of starter and link diets immediately post-weaning had little influence on post-weaning growth performance. Moreover, Leliveld et al. (2013) found that weaning age (3, 4 or 5 weeks) did not affect the response to the level of starter and link diets fed. If growth performance was looked at alone this would suggest that there was no benefit from feeding more than 1kg starter and 3kg link diet. However, this should be treated with caution as mortality was higher in this study when low levels of starter and link were fed.
Bearing the above in mind it might be possible to feed allocations of starter and link as low as 1 and 3kg respectively to heavy weaned pigs in a high health situation. However, lighter weaned pigs, which are more likely in large litters, will likely benefit from a higher allocation of starter and link. In addition, if there are health problems on a unit then pigs will also likely benefit from a higher allocation of starter and link.
Liquid feeding reportedly stimulates post-weaning feed intake and growth rate in pigs. A series of four experiments to examine the effect of liquid feeding of weaned pigs on postweaning growth performance and residual effects up to slaughter were conducted at Moorepark (Lawlor et al. 2002b). Table 12 summarises the results from one of these experiments. Surprisingly, feeding liquid feed to weaned pigs did not increase pig growth rate and in fact, in other experiments decreased it. It was also quite wasteful, leading to unacceptable feed efficiency. With fermented liquid feed, uncontrolled fermentation of the feed is highly unpredictable and the growth of undesirable bacteria, yeasts and moulds can cause problems. A starter culture was deliberately added to produce fermented liquid feed in this study; however, DM gain/feed was still decreased. It is concluded that there is no benefit from liquid feeding weaned pigs whether in fresh, acidified or fermented form.
Table 12. Effect of liquid feeding on pig performancea (LSMb ± SEM; Lawlor et al. 2002b)
表12.液體飼料對豬的影響（LSMB±SEM; Lawlor等人2002年b）
處理
DPF
ALF
FLF
SEM
體重（kg）
斷奶
8.0
8.0
8.0
27天
17.7
18.5
17.3
0.35
屠宰前活重
1101.0
99.8
98.4
0.8
DMI（g/d）
0到27天
407
518
473
14.9
0天到屠宰
1376
1358
1337
13.1
ADG（g/d）
0到27天
361
389
347
13.2
0天到屠宰
684
695
683
8.1
DM 增重/飼料
0到27天
888
749
733
15.8
0天到屠宰
495
513
511
6.7
表注呢？需要翻譯！
8. Feeding milk replacer post-weaning
Feeding milk replacer in the immediate post-weaning period could be an effective strategy to increase feed intake and daily gain in the critical few days after weaning. Feeding a milk replacer plus starter diet for 4 days after weaning increased daily gain by 20-30% in the first week after weaning when compared with feeding the starter diet alone. The pigs also contained more protein and fat in their carcasses and had longer intestinal villi than pigs that were left on the sow, or pigs that were weaned directly onto starter diet (Zijlstra et al., 1996). Low post-weaning intakes are responsible for the reduction in villous height seen after weaning. This villous shortening accentuates the low growth rates normally observed in the first week after weaning. However, offering liquid milk diets at regular intervals during this period could help maintain gut integrity, and thereby help overcome the growth lag at this time (Pluske et al., 1995).
8.斷奶后飼喂代乳品
在斷奶期喂養(yǎng)代乳品可能是斷奶后增加采食量和日增重的有效策略。在斷奶后用代乳品+教槽料飼喂4天，與單獨飼喂開食料相比，斷奶后第一周日增重可增加20%-30％。與留在母豬身邊的仔豬相比，或者與斷奶后直接飼喂開食料的仔豬相比，這些仔豬的胴體含有更多的蛋白質(zhì)和脂肪，并且小腸絨毛更長（澤吉爾斯達等，1996）。在斷奶后采食量低可導(dǎo)致絨毛高度的降低。這種絨毛縮短使得斷奶后第一周本來就低的生長速度更加惡化。然而,在此期間定期提供液態(tài)奶的日糧有助于維護腸道的完整性,從而有助于仔豬克服這時的生長滯后(Pluske et al .,1995)。
Feeding liquid milk post-weaning is not widely practiced due to economic and labour considerations. However, this is a strategy that could benefit immediate post-weaning feed intake and growth of, in particular, light weaned pigs. Extreme caution would be advised regarding hygiene for the system used to both deliver and feed the milk replacer to avoid associated health problems.