Research: Much to gain if nursery diets match digestive capabilities.

Apr 24, 2023

Previous nursery feeding logic told us to feed nursery pigs based on their weaning weight. That heavier pigs had more advanced guts and could handle a more advanced diet. New research involving Nurture™, Cargill’s young pig program, shows weight isn’t the main factor in how we should be feeding pigs; we need to look at the digestive capabilities, and that is tied to their age.

Tremendous changes occur in a young pig’s digestive capabilities between seven and 35 days of age. “Until this point, the piglet’s immune system has relied heavily on colostrum and maternal antibodies from the sow,” according to Sabrina May, Pork Tech Application Lead, Cargill.

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Video: 2026 T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science - Dan Weary

T.K. Cheung Lecture in Animal Science: "Using science to assess and improve the welfare of dairy cattle"

Dan Weary is a Professor at the University of British Columbia. Dan did his BSc and MSc at McGill and Doctorate at Oxford before co-founding UBC’s Animal Welfare Program where he now co-directs this active research group. His research focuses on understanding the perspectives of animals and applying these insights to develop methods of assessing animal welfare and improving the lives of animals. His work has helped drive changes in practices (including the adoption of higher milk rations for calves and pain management for disbudding) and housing methods (including the adoption of social housing for pre-weaned calves). He also studies cow comfort and lameness, social interactions among cows, and interactions between cows, human handlers and technologies like automated millking systems that are increasingly used on farms. His presentation will outline key questions in cattle welfare, highlight recent UBC research addressing them, and showcase innovative methods for improving the lives of cattle and their caretakers.