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Piglets are given creep feed to fill the gap between their increasing nutrients requirement and nutrients supplied by the lactating sow because of the declining milk production, which may be insufficient to meet the steadily increasing demands from growing piglet. Generally, commercial recommendations on when to initiate creep feeding as early as 2 to 3 day of age to induce piglets to consume solid feed and achieve greater total creep feed consumption throughout lactation. However, evidence on the effect of creep feeding duration on feed consumption and growth performance has been limited. Therefore, 32 sows (Landrace × Yorkshire) and their litters were used to evaluate i) the effects of varying duration of creep feeding on the pre-weaning and post-weaning growth performance and behavior of piglets and ii) the effects of varying duration of creep feeding on performance and behavior of sows. Sows were randomly assigned with 1, 2 or 3+ parities into 1 of 4 treatments. Creep feeding was initiated at day 5, 10 and 15 from birth for treatment 1 (TRT1), 2 (TRT2) and 3 (TRT3), respectively, with a control group provided no creep feed.
In this study, TRT1 and TRT2 diets had reduced (P < 0.05) the post-weaning diarrhea scores in piglets and the weaning-to-estrus interval and cortisol concentration in sows at weaning time compared with other treatments. Dietary TRT1 led to a higher (P < 0.05) epinephrine and norepinephrine concentrations than other treatments. No differences (P > 0.05) were noted in suckling, sleeping, fighting frequency and mortality in piglet and eating, standing times, backfat and body weight loss in sows.
In conclusion, creep feed initiated from day 5 and 10 reduce diarrhea scores in piglets and benefit the estrus interval in sows compared with those initiated from day 15 and no-creep feeding diets, indicating creep feeding could improve the pigs and sows performance, especially those initiated from day 5 and 10.
L Yan, HD Jang and IH Kim, 2011. Asian-Australasian Journal of Animal Science, 24(11): 1601 - 1606.