Wet/Dry feeders and Starter Pig Diets

With the ORIGINAL Wet/Dry shelf feeder, the Crystal Spring family of feeders has been proven to provide excellent performance to producers throughout the world. This is important when considering various feed ingredients utilized by nutritionists across the globe in formulating phase diets, especially those used as Starters.

This week, I came across an interesting article published by Farm Journal’s Pork, written by our friends at Kansas State University Research and Extension, discussing the formulation of Starter Pig Diets in order to minimize gut health concerns: https://www.porkbusiness.com/article/formulate-starter-pig-diets-minimize-gut-health-concerns

We know that enhancing water delivery (Barber, et al. 1989) and slurry feed (Han, et. al. 2006) increases both feed intake and growth because it aids the piglet’s gut health as it transitions from the sow’s milk to dry feed. Therefore, feeder design has a great impact on this transition – one of the many reasons Crystal Spring has engineered our wet/dry feeders. So, with an excellent feed formulation, using the principles noted in the article, in combination with a Crystal Spring feeder, your piglets will transition much better than with a traditional dry feeder when evaluating growth rates' sustainability.

One more thing as it relates to the various feed ingredients used – our patented EZ-Adjustment System™ has the ability to give precise feed flow control whether feeding mash or pellets. We do this by having one of the finest adjustments (1.5mm per increment) in the industry. This optimum flow allows increased ADG and FCR while reducing feed and water wastage.