Search

Making silage allows for the preservation of liquid and fibrous by-products, and it improves feed digestibility. Feeding silage increases the digestive system volume for the subsequent fattening phase and, as it is a bulk feed, reduces the stress of pigs under restricted feeding. • Silage is a solution for the conservation and use of by-products. • Pigs will readily eat silage once they are adapted to its consumption. • It is essential to correctly balance and calculate the daily ration, especially when animals are feed restricted. • The mixing of components, which must be very well chopped and packed without leaving any air (for anaer-obic fermentation) (figure 1), is very important for the silage preparation. • For growing pigs, the feed ration can be reduced by 10-15% so that they can eat about 240-320 g of silage/ day at the beginning (young growers) and end up eating 750 g/day. One week is recommended for progres-sive adaptation of any kind of pig to the new diet.

Benefits • Whey is a natural ingredient derived from fresh milk and is characterized by its high nutritive value, palatability, and digestibility. • It promotes feed intake in the post-weaning period. • Whey fosters animal performance and gut health. • Whey contains high-quality protein. It can supply one-third of the protein needs for fattening pigs. Practical recommendation • Whey is a quite seasonal product; hence, this determines the period when it can be used and the number of pigs that can be fattened. • Whey can deteriorate very easily; two storage tanks are needed for hygiene reasons. • Do not feed whey stored over 2 days. • Sweet whey is the by-product remaining after the production of soft cheeses, while acid whey comes from hard cheeses and has a lower pH. It is important to consider that salt is added to the cheese before pressing; hence, the remaining liquid whey can contain as much as 10 % dry matter of salt. • Pigs should be provided with water access ad libitum to avoid salt toxicity. Additionally, reduction or elimination of supplemental salt in the diet formulation should be considered. • Salt and lactose contents should be considered to determine the daily intake rate. Fresh whey contains approximately 5% lactose, and growing pigs tolerate feeds containing up to 20-30% lactose (less for the older ones). Hence, whey should be analysed to determine the threshold for its inclusion before formulating pig diets.

Benefits • Yeast has a high content of protein (> 47% DM) of high biological (3.6% of lysine) and digestible value (> 85%), thus reducing the cost of feed. • Yeast is rich in B vitamins, especially biotin and folic acid (besides vitamin B1, B2, B6, B12, PP, B5) and in vitamin D, with a content of 2000 - 5000 IU /g DM. • The content of phosphorus in the yeast is up to 0.8-1.3%. • Yeast promotes animal performance and health. • Yeast improves the quality of the carcass. Practical recommendation • Two holding tanks are needed for hygiene reasons. • Yeast deteriorates very easily, do not use the product stored over 2 days. • It is necessary to deactivate (kill) the yeast before transporting and using it on the farm. Hence, autolyzed yeast should be used. • Yeast is a quite seasonal product, and it cannot be stored; however, it can be added to silage mixtures as an alternative to avoid its deterioration.

This tool reviews raw materials, produce and by-products traditionally used to feed pigs. It explains facts about alternative feed sources and shows a wide range of possibilities, from natural resources like fruits (acorns, chestnuts, olives, carobs, etc.) and weeds to local crops (cabbages, turnips, etc.) and fodders (i.e. lucerne). Silage is shown as an option to conserve and handle raw materials. It includes many references and links for further and complementary information.

The fattening performance is very much influenced by the age of pigs and their compensatory growth; hence, pigs should be as old as possible (≥1 year) and adapted to grazing. - Grass is necessary as a source of protein to compensate for the low protein levels in acorns. - The food conversion rate is 10.5 kg of whole acorns of Q. i. rotundifolia to gain 1 kg, besides the contribution of grass; to establish the stocking rate, consider that an adult evergreen oak produces ≈11 kg of acorns/year). - Iberian pigs peel acorns to avoid the high content of tannins in the shell. However, during peeling, approxi-mately 20% of the kernel can be wasted.

The transition to 100% organic feed ingredients for organic livestock is expected to take effect from January 1st 2020 in Europe. In order to contribute to the goal of 100% use of organic and regional feed for monogastrics, this knowledge synthesis “Feeding monogastrics 100% organic and regionally produced feed“ aims to describe: • the protein need for organic monogastric animals (pigs, layers and broilers), including different breeds and rearing conditions • different protein feed resources, mostly new or not commonly used protein sources, their nutrient content, production prerequisites, and their potential feeding value • small-scale, on-farm equipment for feed processing • different feeding strategies. The knowledge synthesis should enable participants in Innovation groups (IG) and Thematic groups (TG) to choose feed materials, feeding strategies, breeds and perhaps even small-scale on-farm equipment for testing when aiming at 100% organic and regionally produced feed for monogastrics. In the knowledge synthesis it is concluded: When feeding pigs and poultry 100% organic and regionally produced feed, getting enough protein and specific amino acids is a challenge. There are two ways to go and they can be combined. One is to utilize by-products, for example waste from various productions, and explore new protein sources e.g. marine products or to refine already known products such as grass. The other way is to feed the animals less intensively and for this feeding strategy slow-growing breeds fit better. Some slow-growing breeds are already known, some are rediscovered old breeds. The challenge with the slow-growing and less-yielding breeds is that the production is getting smaller and either the farmer will earn less or the prices of eggs and meat will increase. However, the possibilities for combinations of regionally grown feed, low-yielding breeds with different feeding strategies are many and they need to be explored. Finally, the knowledge synthesis identify