A comparison of offering meal from a self-feed hopper having built-in watering with some conventional systems of offering meal and pellets to finishing pigs

In two experiments, involving 624 and 480 pigs, a system of meal-feeding from a novel self-feed hopper with nipple drinkers positioned within the trough was compared with meal or pellets given ad libitum through conventional self-feed hoppers, or a high-oil meal (50 g soya oil kg−1 meal) offered ad libitum through conventional hoppers, or a restricted allowance of wet meal presented in troughs. In Experiment 1, an additional treatment comprised a medium-oil meal which had been treated with soya oil at 25 g kg−1 meal and which was given ad libitum through conventional hoppers, while in Experiment 2 a restricted allowance of pellets was given through conventional hoppers. Offering meal through the novel hoppers, as compared with conventional hoppers, gave the highest rates of live-weight gain, and improved the apparent conversion of digestible energy to carcass gain by 2.5%. The comparable improvement in efficiency with a restricted allowance of meal given in wet form in a trough was 5.4%. Treating the meal with oil also improved the efficiency of conversion of digestible energy to carcass gain in comparison with untreated meal, and the improvement was greater than was obtained with meal given through the novel hopper. Pelleted meal gave the most efficient conversion of DE to carcass gain in both experiments.