Gestating sows on restricted diets are hungry. At pasture, there is also a risk that they are damaging the pasture by their high rooting activity. Forage turnips (Barkant Brassica Turnip) in the pasture have great potential to serve as supplementary feed and behaviour enrichment for gestating sows.
Solution
Gestating sows fed either 60 or 100% of their commercial diet had access to pasture with established forage turnips (Figure 1). The study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of establishing turnips and its potential as nutrient resource and behaviour enrichment for the sows.
Description
By establishing turnips, the sows will be supplied with foraging material, so the turnips can serve as a nutrient source and as behavioural enrichment. Moreover, this can reduce pasture damage caused by excessive rooting.
• Sows consumed forage turnips, roots and leaves, very well and gestating sows were hungry even at 100% commercial feed ratio (Figure 2).
• Consumption of forage turnips was around 1.1 kg dry matter per sow and day, corresponding to 11.2 MJ NE/sow and day
• Poor establishment of forage turnips resulted in too little energy for the restrictively fed sows. They had to use their own body reserves and lost in body condition and weight (Figures 3 and 4).
• The average number of weaned piglets was very low (8.4 and 8.5 piglets/sow) in both the treatment and the control group. This was probably due to a fire in a nearby unit, which made the sows very stressed.
• To increase the yield of forage turnips, they might be seeded in combination with e.g. white clover.
• A drill with doubled spacing (e.g. 25 cm) might lower a high weed pressure.
• Theoretically, up to 40% lower feed ration might be replaced by forage turnips. However, there need to be enough forage turnips in the field in order not to risk poor sow body condition and weight losses during ges-tation and post farrowing.
• Forage turnips can serve as behaviour enrichment to restrictively fed sows and have the potential to lower accumulated land use by reducing rooting activity.
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