Feed accounts for more than 70% of pig-raising costs during the nursery and finishing stages. There has been plenty of discussion about feed formulas and raw material prices, but the amount of feed wasted in the final stretch before it reaches the pig’s mouth—from the feed silo to the trough and feeding space—often does not receive the same priority. Poor trough design, too few or overly wide feeding spaces, and fighting and feed scattering caused by missing dividers all continue to drain savings made on the formulation side.
The dimensions of feeding spaces should not be determined by simply “dividing up” the width of the pen. A general recommendation is to make the width of a feeding space 1.1 times the pig’s shoulder width. An empirical formula is 6.7 centimeters multiplied by body weight to the power of 0.333: 30 kilograms corresponds to approximately 20.8 centimeters, 60 kilograms to approximately 26.2 centimeters, and 120 kilograms to approximately 33 centimeters. If the spaces are installed at a width calculated for market weight, each feeding space will offer more room than needed during the piglets’ early stage, increasing the area where feed can be spilled and scattered. If they are installed at a width suitable for piglets, feeding becomes crowded and fighting increases when the pigs grow larger. Depth and edge height also need to be matched to each stage: for nursery pigs, feeding-space depth should be 10 to 20 centimeters and edge height 5 to 10 centimeters; for finishing pigs, depth should be 25 to 30 centimeters and edge height 10 to 15 centimeters. These dimensions directly determine whether pigs can eat comfortably or end up rooting feed onto the floor.
The dividers between feeding spaces affect not “appearance,” but fighting and waste. Experimental data show that when dividers reach the pigs’ shoulders, there is almost no fighting; when they reach the head, the average fighting rate is about 7%; with no dividers at all, the average fighting rate is about 19%, and feed waste increases accordingly. Trough feeders are widely used on some pig farms, but their inherent lack of dividers makes competition and feed scattering during feeding harder to control. The number of pigs served by each feeding space should not be determined simply by “trough length divided by the number of pigs in the pen.” A more cautious recommendation is: for a dry feeder, each feeding space should serve 8 to 10 pigs; for a dry-wet feeder, each should serve around 12 pigs; and for a trough feeder, following the PIC manual’s recommendation, each side should serve 11 pigs, equivalent to about 51 millimeters of trough length per pig. In actual production, however, many pig farms operate with 30 to 35 pigs per trough feeder. This standard is clearly quite lenient, especially during the piglet stage: piglets spend more time eating each day, and the problem of insufficient feeding spaces first becomes apparent precisely at a younger age.
Feed form is another factor to consider when selecting a feeder: dry-wet feeders are preferable for mash feed to increase feed intake, while pelleted feed is relatively less affected by feeder type. Stainless steel feeders with effective dividers reaching the head or even the shoulders require a higher upfront investment than standard feeders, but compared with ongoing feed costs, this investment can be recouped within a few batches by reducing waste. Feeder and feeding-space management deserve to be treated as one of the core aspects of husbandry management because they occupy the position of “the feed formula is already set, and the pigs use it every day.” Every dimensional deviation and every missing divider here allows feed costs to leak away bit by bit through unseen feed scattering and fighting.
The dimensions of feeding spaces should not be determined by simply “dividing up” the width of the pen. A general recommendation is to make the width of a feeding space 1.1 times the pig’s shoulder width. An empirical formula is 6.7 centimeters multiplied by body weight to the power of 0.333: 30 kilograms corresponds to approximately 20.8 centimeters, 60 kilograms to approximately 26.2 centimeters, and 120 kilograms to approximately 33 centimeters. If the spaces are installed at a width calculated for market weight, each feeding space will offer more room than needed during the piglets’ early stage, increasing the area where feed can be spilled and scattered. If they are installed at a width suitable for piglets, feeding becomes crowded and fighting increases when the pigs grow larger. Depth and edge height also need to be matched to each stage: for nursery pigs, feeding-space depth should be 10 to 20 centimeters and edge height 5 to 10 centimeters; for finishing pigs, depth should be 25 to 30 centimeters and edge height 10 to 15 centimeters. These dimensions directly determine whether pigs can eat comfortably or end up rooting feed onto the floor.
The dividers between feeding spaces affect not “appearance,” but fighting and waste. Experimental data show that when dividers reach the pigs’ shoulders, there is almost no fighting; when they reach the head, the average fighting rate is about 7%; with no dividers at all, the average fighting rate is about 19%, and feed waste increases accordingly. Trough feeders are widely used on some pig farms, but their inherent lack of dividers makes competition and feed scattering during feeding harder to control. The number of pigs served by each feeding space should not be determined simply by “trough length divided by the number of pigs in the pen.” A more cautious recommendation is: for a dry feeder, each feeding space should serve 8 to 10 pigs; for a dry-wet feeder, each should serve around 12 pigs; and for a trough feeder, following the PIC manual’s recommendation, each side should serve 11 pigs, equivalent to about 51 millimeters of trough length per pig. In actual production, however, many pig farms operate with 30 to 35 pigs per trough feeder. This standard is clearly quite lenient, especially during the piglet stage: piglets spend more time eating each day, and the problem of insufficient feeding spaces first becomes apparent precisely at a younger age.
Feed form is another factor to consider when selecting a feeder: dry-wet feeders are preferable for mash feed to increase feed intake, while pelleted feed is relatively less affected by feeder type. Stainless steel feeders with effective dividers reaching the head or even the shoulders require a higher upfront investment than standard feeders, but compared with ongoing feed costs, this investment can be recouped within a few batches by reducing waste. Feeder and feeding-space management deserve to be treated as one of the core aspects of husbandry management because they occupy the position of “the feed formula is already set, and the pigs use it every day.” Every dimensional deviation and every missing divider here allows feed costs to leak away bit by bit through unseen feed scattering and fighting.