Pigs and inquisitive creatures who enjoy foraging and exploring which means feed competition stands out as a significant risk factor for aggressive and damaging actions. A new study lead by Teagasc believes that double-spaced feeders can mitigate aggressive behaviour on pig units.

The research looked at 288 pigs from weaning to slaughter with the animals kept in their original litter groups. The groups were randomly to single or double spaced feeder pens. The single spaced pens allowed one pig to feed at a time, while double-spaced pens facilitated feeding for two pig at oncer.

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The researchers provided enrichment materials and measured parameters such as daily gain, feed conversion ratio, feed intake, feeding behaviour, and competitive behaviour during feeding, They also recorded the occurence of tail, ear, and flank lesions. The study also took into account carcass quality measures such as weight, lean meat percentage, muscle percentage, and fat percentage were recorded at the slaughterhouse.

The findings show that using single-space feeders increased lean meat yield and kill-out yield, but had no effect on carcass quality at slaughter.

Meanwhile double-spaced feeders had a higher occupancy, shorter feeding bout durations, and more feeding bouts compared to single-spaced feeders.

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Double-spaced feeders resulted in fewer instances of fighting, head knocking, body biting, and non-biting behaviour, indicating reduced aggression and competition during feeding. However, they also experienced more tail-biting outbreaks, leading to a higher incidence of tail damage and an increased percentage of damaged tails compared to single-spaced feeders. Nonetheless, the rate of increase in pigs with partial or complete missing tails was slower in double-spaced feeders.

The conclusion of the research states that increasing feeder occupancy through double-spaced feeders reduces feed competition, subsequently decreasing aggressive and damaging behaviours in weaner and finisher stages. However, it is important to note that this management strategy alone did not effectively reduce tail-biting behaviour compared to pens with standard single-spaced feeders.