FEED-STRAT

Evaluation of current feeding and management practices in Irish pig production and future strategies for improvement

Project Summary

Ireland has an important diversity in feeding practices between pig farms. However there is not much information on what practices work better in each type of farm depending on size, genetics, health status and other characteristics. Farmers often wonder whether it is better for them to use:

Wet or Dry feed,
Pellet or Meal,
Home milled or Purchased feed,
Phase-feeding or Single finishing feed,
High specifications or Low specification diets.

All these decision and some others are becoming more important in recent years as profitability of pig production is decreasing and feed efficiency has to be maximized. The use of pooled data from a high number of farms in a confidential way can provide Irish farmer with very useful information in a short period of time for future decision making.

Teagasc Personnel:

Dr. Edgar Garcia Manzanilla
Dr. Peadar Lawlor
Maria Rodrigues da Costa (postgraduate student)

For More details contact:

Edgar Garcia Manzanilla at Edgar.GarciaManzanilla@teagasc.ie or +353 (0) 25 42290