Young mammals get two equally important beginnings at nutritional growth and development: when they begin nursing shortly after birth, and then later when they start eating solid food on their own. It’s not easy being a baby, but weaning piglets are particularly subject to a host of stresses that follow them from the sow to mingling with other litters and varying ages of pig flows.
Learning to like the feed enough to eat up is challenging enough — but this is also a critical window in the pig’s development for both helping prime their body’s later grow-finish gains and equipping it to turn nutrients into building blocks toward a stronger immune system for life.
It’s a challenge I relish, as Carthage Veterinary Service’s (CVS) nutrition consultant to independent producers, and I enjoy the prospect of putting together a diet for each barn that gets their nursery pigs off to a great start.
When Crumble is Best
One of the more impactful things I learned about pig development early in my career came from Dean Boyd, a prominent animal nutritionist retired from The Hanor Company now serving as an adjunct professor for North Carolina State and Iowa State universities. He told me the most important diet in a pig’s life is their first nursery diet; and the second most important is their second-phase nursery diet.
Producers want a nursery diet that helps the piglets with higher lactose levels while cutting back on crude protein content. There are different types of lactose sources to consider, including whey and sugar; I like sugar over traditional whey for getting the newly weaned piglet started on feed, since it tends to ensure happy eating.
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