Supplemented Milk Diets for Young Pigs in Cages

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Abstract
Baby pigs have been successfully reared in screen-floored cages from 2 days of age past the normal weaning age of 8 weeks on whole milk diets supplemented with minerals and cod-liver oil. Twenty-four cross-bred pigs from three litters were used in this study. Analysis of the data for the first six weeks showed that skim milk plus butter (diet B) was equal to reconstituted whole milk powder (diet C) and that both were superior to evaporated milk (diet A). There was no difference in the efficiency with which the solids from the three milks were utilized for growth. Consumptions of the evaporated milk were much lower than for the other two diets. At the normal weaning age of 8 weeks, the mean weights were 35.1 ± 3.0, 46.8 ± 2.1, and 48.6 ± 1.4 pounds for diets A, B, and C, respectively. All hand-fed pigs weighed on an average 9.6 pounds more than a comparable number of similar pigs that had been suckled by their dams on good pasture with access to a self-feeder. Mortality during the experiment was 12½ percent. Copyright © . .

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