It can increase the intake and drinking amount of piglets and the wet feeding effect of weaned piglets is good.

Wet feed is a mixture prepared by a certain proportion of conventional dry feed and liquid carriers such as water and liquid by-products of food processing. Piglet feed or swill soaked in hot water in rural areas is a typical example of wet feeding. At present, with the continuous shortening of the weaning age of piglets, the weaning stress of piglets, especially food stress, is increasing. Wet feeding can effectively reduce weaning stress and promote the normal growth of piglets after weaning.

Wet feeding of piglets

(a) the advantages of wet feeding of weaned piglets:

The main results are as follows: (1) it can maintain the health of digestive tract environment of weaned piglets and prevent diseases such as diarrhea. After weaning, direct feeding of dry feed will lead to atrophy of small intestinal villi and deepening of crypt. This affects the digestion and absorption of nutrients in the digestive tract, and thus causes digestive tract diseases such as diarrhea. The physical morphology of wet feed was similar to that of breast milk, which could reduce the adverse effect of abrupt change of feed morphology on the structure and function of digestive tract of piglets.

(2) it can increase the feed intake and water consumption of piglets. Newly weaned piglets have not fully learned to feed and drink independently, so they can not fully adapt to dry feed. The shape of wet feed is similar to that of breast milk, which is not only convenient for piglets to eat, but also beneficial to promote gastrointestinal development and increase digestive tract volume.

(3) to improve daily gain and feed efficiency of weaned piglets. On the one hand, wet feeding can maintain the health status of weaned piglets, on the other hand, increase feed intake and improve gastrointestinal digestion and absorption function, so it can improve the growth rate and feed efficiency of weaned piglets.

(4) not only save water, but also reduce feed dust. Using drinking fountains to supply water to piglets, the loss of dripping and leakage is large, and the water is supplied through the trough, and the remaining water needs to be released before each feeding, which is also a great waste. When using wet feeding method, piglets also replenish a lot of water while eating, so as to reduce the waste of drinking water. In addition, after the feed was wet, the dust was reduced, which not only reduced the feed waste, but also reduced the respiratory diseases of piglets caused by feed dust.

(2) preparation of wet feed for weaned piglets:

The main results are as follows: (1) manual method: that is, the dry feed is directly mixed with water in small and medium-sized material cylinders or troughs and then fed to weaned piglets. This manual blending method is suitable for small groups in rural areas or free breeding. In the cold season, the effect is better if the water is heated in advance.

(2) Mechanical method: mechanized wet feeding facilities can save manpower, reduce feed waste, improve feed utilization rate, and increase the feeding frequency of piglets with good feeding effect. Weaning piglets in large and medium-sized pig farms can be popularized and applied.

(3) microbial fermentation production: according to the requirements of the silage cellar, a small pool is built in or near the pig farm, and the solid feed is mixed with water in a certain proportion, in which it is best to be inoculated with a batch of beneficial bacteria (lactobacillus, yeast, etc.). Let it ferment. Fermentation raw materials can choose roughage or roughage + concentrate fodder. When feeding, take out the fermentation material, and then mix with other concentrate, add water to form a wet feed. This method is more suitable for small pig farms.

(3) points for attention during wet feeding of weaned piglets:

The main results are as follows: (1) the dry matter concentration of wet feed should be suitable, and the suitable dry matter concentration is beneficial to further reduce the stimulation of wet feed on gastrointestinal tract of weaned piglets. The dry matter concentration of sow milk is about 19.6%, so when the wet feed water: feed ratio of piglets is about 5 ∶ 1, the effect is better, which can be gradually increased with the increase of piglet age.

(2) to ensure adequate nutrition supply: a good wet feed must be able to provide sufficient protein, energy, minerals and other nutrients to weaned piglets, so the dry feed raw materials used to prepare wet feed should have high nutrient concentration.

(3) keep the wet feed and trough clean: when using the fermentation method to prepare the wet feed, the effect of the residual feed in the trough after each feeding is not significant, because there are still a large number of beneficial microorganisms in the remaining feed and will not mildew. However, when using other wet feeding methods, the material trough should be often cleaned to prevent mold and other harmful microorganisms from causing corruption and deterioration of the remaining feed. If you use food processing scraps or hogwash to make wet feed, you should try to keep it fresh and not spoil.