Weaning piglets correctly: this is how it's done!

Adjust feeding already on the sow before weaning

The change from liquid to solid food is an important change for piglets at weaning. Suckling piglets initially feed exclusively on their mother's or sow's milk. Their digestive cycle is therefore optimally adapted to this form of nutrition. To enable a gentle transition to solid food, suckling piglets should therefore be given solid feed in addition to sow's milk as early as one week after birth. A particularly tasty prestarter (e.g. deuka primo plasma) with a high whey content, whose taste is familiar to the piglets, is suitable for this.

During the further suckling phase, a prestarter (e.g. deuka primo wean or deuka primo start) should be fed, which, due to its composition, can also be fed after weaning. In addition to a high whey content, it also contains starch, which the piglets have to get used to digesting. In this way, the gastrointestinal tract can slowly adapt to the new food and produce the necessary digestive enzymes (e.g. amylase for the utilisation of starch).

Well supplied right from the start: Ensuring water supply for piglets

Piglets need a lot of water immediately after weaning. The reason: The young animals lack the liquid from the sow's milk. In order to ensure sufficient water intake of the piglets directly after re-housing, it is advisable to place additional bowls with water in the flat deck. The same applies to feed.

Before re-housing, the water pipes must be flushed to ensure good water quality at all drinkers in the flat deck. In addition, the more drinking places that are within easy reach of the piglets, the more water is accessible to the animals and the better the prevention of deficiencies and reduced performance.

The barn climate must be right: pleasant temperatures for piglets

Piglets like it warm. In addition, the weaners, who are only a few weeks old, react sensitively to temperature fluctuations. Heat the barn sufficiently long so that the surfaces reach 28 degrees - at least. This is the only way the animals feel comfortable in the flat deck. Only a sufficiently long heating period ensures that concrete gaps, (outer) walls and metal parts are also evenly warm. This prevents the piglets from cooling down in the flat deck.

Clean & pure: Optimal hygiene for piglets in the flat deck

An unclean flat deck is a potential breeding ground for pathogens. The immune system of piglets is not yet fully developed, which makes them susceptible to diseases. To minimise the risk of contact with harmful germs, thorough cleaning of the flat deck before housing is mandatory.

This starts with a sufficient soaking of the compartment and is followed by a thorough cleaning of the pens and feeders with a high-pressure cleaner. But all ramps, animal scales and aisles must also be cleaned. In addition, clean feed mixing containers with alkalis and acids in the case of liquid feeders. Finally, empty the feed silos, but also the dry feeding systems and the associated downpipes and volumetric feeders. This reduces unhygienic caking and helps to keep rodents away

Probiotic properties

Probiotics are special feed additives containing beneficial microorganisms. These have a positive effect on the bacterial environment in the small intestine. In this way, they can positively influence the feed conversion of piglets. Their presence in the small intestine competes with harmful germs (pathogens) and thus inhibits their development. The weakly developed immune system of the young pigs then has to deal with fewer pathogens - this frees up capacities for better development and higher performance.

Prebiotic properties

Prebiotics (syn. prebiotics) are indigestible carbohydrates in feed. These dietary fibres develop their digestive properties in the large intestine, where they are fermented. There they can boost the production of volatile fatty acids. Especially with still young piglets, it is important to steer the development of the microbiota in the intestine in the right direction right from the start.

Antioxidant properties

High-yielding pigs have a high metabolic rate. In stressful situations (e.g. heat stress, disease outbreaks or housing changes), free radicals are released. Free radicals are reactive, aggressive oxygen compounds that can cause inflammation in the body. Antioxidants are substances found in various foods that bind free radicals and thus protect cells from inflammation and oxidative stress. For example, vitamin C, vitamin E or polyphenols have antioxidant properties.

Increase the digestibility of the piglet feed

The better piglets digest their food, the more nutrients are available for growth and development. The digestibility of the Piglet feed is therefore of great importance for the development of the piglets. Accordingly, attention should be paid to optimising the digestibility of piglet feed. Certain feed additives can help with this.

• NSP enzymes
  Some feed components (e.g. dietary fibres) swell strongly. This can have a negative effect on the consistency of the feed slurry. However, viscous feed slurry is not optimally broken down by digestive enzymes in the stomach and intestines and the feed is consequently not optimally digested. The addition of non-starch polysaccharide-splitting enzymes (NSP enzymes for short) helps to break down the swelling dietary fibres of the feed, thus making the intestinal contents more fluid so that the digestive enzymes have easier access to the food components. This improves the digestibility of the feed.

• optigrain^®
  There are several reasons for using digested components in piglet feed. Pressure hydrothermal treatment of feed components that are difficult for weaned piglets to digest - above all wheat, barley and maize - increases their surface area, which improves their digestibility. This leads to rapidly available energy and thus to a rapid rise in blood sugar levels shortly after feeding. As a result, a feeling of satiety arises. However, with the subsequent drop in the blood sugar level, hunger quickly returns (McDonald's effect). Thus, broken-down components ensure regular feed intake in many small portions, while at the same time ensuring digestion of the starch in the anterior intestinal segments Deutsche Tiernahrung Cremer produces such components under the brand name optigrain^® using the patented opticon^® process.
  In the declaration, the component is described as "pressure hydrothermally digested (...)".

• optiraps^®
  The use of appropriately treated protein- and fibre-containing raw materials (e.g. rapeseed meal) also offers advantages: Treatment with heat and pressure using the opticon^® process opens indigestible fibre membranes. This makes internal nutrients in the large intestine usable for the piglets. The result is a mix of fibre components that can be digested at different speeds, which promotes and develops the microbiota in the large intestine Deutsche Tiernahrung Cremer uses digested rapeseed under the brand name optiraps® . Another advantage of the opticon^® treatment: toast and roast aromas are created, which have an attractive effect on piglets and thus contribute to a high, even feed intake.
  In the declaration, the component is described as "pressure hydrothermally digested (...)".

• praecaecal digestible Amino acids
  The protein digestibility of piglet feed can also be increased. This is best achieved by increasing protein quality and looking at protein components differently. This includes, for example, optimising for precaecal digestible amino acids. This is calculated on the amount of amino acids that can actually be absorbed by the animal in the small intestine. Highly digestible protein sources are also suitable for feeding, e.g. potato protein or protein hydrolysate. Protein hydrolysate in particular meets all the requirements piglets have for protein: It has a high proportion of free amino acids and is therefore very easy to digest - but at the same time it is also particularly tasty. The use of pressure hydrothermally treated protein sources can also help to improve the digestibility of the ration. Appropriate piglet feeds contain, for example, digested soya protein concentrate or toasted soya beans. These ingredients have particularly few antinutritional properties (e.g. trypsin inhibitors) and are therefore highly digestible, especially for piglets.

Reduce stomach pH of weaned piglets for optimal digestion

The sow's milkis decomposed by lactic acid bacteria. The lactic acid produced by the bacteria strongly lowers the pH value in the piglets' stomachs. After weaning and the switch to a diet containingcereals and starch, the acidifying effect of lactic acid ceases. However, the production of gastric acid is only just beginning in piglets, which have had little or no solid food up to now (see illustration).

Buffering components

Certain components in piglet feed (e.g. crude protein and calcium) have a "buffering" effect on the pH value in the piglet stomach and thus prevent it from dropping. However, if the stomach pH remains high, piglets cannot sufficiently utilise the protein in the feed. The protein-cleaving enzyme pepsin, which is needed for this, only becomes active at a low pH of less than 3.

Low protein and calcium

Piglet feed should therefore contain only little crude protein (< 18 percent) and calcium (< 0.65 percent). A comprehensive acid concept (including formic lactic acid) also has a firm place in piglet feeds: it helps to lower the pH value in the stomach to the desired pH range of 2 - 3.

A high proportion of whey and milk products

What the piglet doesn't know, it won't eat: In order to motivate suckling piglets to eat solid food, it is worth choosing a feed with a high proportion of whey protein Weaner feed with a high proportion of whey and milk products. The sweetish taste is familiar to piglets from sow's milk. In addition, the enzyme system is optimally adapted to the digestion of these components. The acclimatisation of young pigs to grain- and starch-rich food is gentle and not so abrupt.

Milk from the sow is particularly fatty. The piglets ' gastrointestinal tract can optimally utilise fats and fatty acids. High-fat Piglet feed are therefore particularly suitable for feeding at the beginning of the weaning phase. But here, too, the devil is in the detail:

• Feed with short- and medium-chain fatty acids (the building blocks of fats) can be better utilised by piglets than long-chain ones.
• Unsaturated fatty acids of vegetable origin (e.g. in soya oil) are easier to digest than saturated fatty acids from animal sources. However, as the latter are more palatable, a mix of both fat sources is suitable in prestarter or weaning feed.