New feeder design improves sow body condition and helps boost pigs-born-alive average.

About three years ago, Iowa Select Farms set out to do a better job of feeding sows in lactation.

The white PVC pipe, cut at an angle at one end to match the slanted backside of the feeder, is held in place by the 1/2-in. bolt in the collar welded to the corner of the feeder.

“We work and work and work to get people to feed sows more consistently,” states Howard Hill, DVM and chief executive officer at Iowa Select Farms (ISF) based in Iowa Falls, IA. “Sows are often hand-fed two or three times a day with a scoop and feed cart.

“When you ask them, ‘how much feed is in that scoop?’ they'll say, ‘that's 5 lb.’ But is 5 lb. a full scoop or a heaping full scoop? They really don't know how much they are feeding,” he asserts.

“Our goal was to develop a more consistent feeding program that could keep lactation feed intake high. We wanted a low-cost, low-maintenance system that also saved labor.”

A pretty tall order, Hill acknowledges, but Iowa Select's production staff set to work with two equipment suppliers to meet the challenge. Through trial-and-error and a series of refinements, the system that evolved now has the sows feeding themselves.

The labor saved has been redirected to the important task of saving more pigs. An additional payoff is the assurance that feed disappearance is now a more accurate measure of actual feed consumption, having eliminated the estimated 10% feed spoilage that most often was scraped from feeders and dumped into the pit.

Evolution of a Sow Feeder

Iowa Select began testing feed delivery systems in a pair of 4,000-sow farms, one equipped by Cablevey, the other by Automated Production Systems (AP). Both carried feed to adjustable feed drop boxes mounted above each farrowing crate. Timers were set to drop feed from the boxes three times daily.

“Both systems allowed us to feed as often as we wanted, they both saved some labor and they both operated as advertised,” Hill says. “But we still had to adjust each drop box for each sow. Someone had to decide whether to cut the sow's feed back or how much to increase it. If a sow is overfed, it doesn't matter if you're feeding her with a scoop or an automated drop box if that feed gets wet and nasty, it still has to be cleaned out, which more than likely means it's dumped into the pit, so that problem hadn't been solved.”

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