Effects of regrouping, feeding and drinking methods on weight gain of weaned piglets

The effects of alterations in regrouping, feeding and drinking practices were examined on a pig farm to improve animal welfare and productivity. Weaned at 35 days of age, 720 piglets were randomly assigned to 24 groups of 30 piglets in a factorial design with three factors. During the next 55 days they were regrouped once, twice or not regrouped at all, had nipple drinkers or a water trough and had 3, 6 or 10 cm trough length per animal and four meals a day or 3 cm trough length per animal and six daily meals. Simple factorial ANOVA revealed that the piglets grew very highly significantly (p < 0.001) faster if they were not regrouped, drank from water troughs and had sufficient trough length available, however, increased feeding frequency partially compensated for shorter trough length. Similar analysis of the ranges of body weights within groups showed similar, yet less significant effects in the opposite direction, i.e. where pigs grew faster there tended to be also less weight difference. It is concluded that avoidance of mixing and undisturbed, easy access to food and water is beneficial to both the welfare of the pigs as well as their productivity.