Establishing forage turnip in the pasture outdoor area as supplementary feed to gestating sows (OK-Net Ecofeed Video)
Forage turnips can serve as behaviour enrichment to
restrictively fed sows and have the potential to lower accumulated land use by reducing rooting activity.
Gestating sows on restricted diets are hungry. Forage turnips (Barkant Brassica Turnip) in the pasture have great potential to serve as supplementary feed and behaviour enrichment for gestating sows.
Solution
By establishing turnips, sows will be supplied with foraging material, serving as a nutrient source and as behavioural enrichment. This can reduce pasture damage caused by excessive rooting.
Description
The study aimed to evaluate the feasibility of establishing turnips and their potential as a nutrient resource and behaviour enrichment for the sows. Forage turnips can serve as behaviour enrichment to restrictively fed sows and have the potential to lower accumulated land use by reducing rooting activity. 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 gestation and post farrowing. To increase the yield of forage turnips, they can be seeded in combination with white clover. A drill with doubled spacing (e.g. 25 cm) can lower the weed pressure.
The tool is applicable to farmers and advisors which raise pigs and have gestating sows. The information can be included in crop rotation planning and the outdoor grazing season.
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Disqus
In order to use the comment function, you must register with the third-party provider "Disqus".
When you activate this function, your browser establishes a direct connection with the servers of the third-party provider. We would like to point out that data is transmitted to the third-party provider after activation, and the latter may set cookies that can also be used for analysis and marketing purposes. For more information, please refer to our privacy policy.
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