Premiers résultats issus d'une station d'alimentation innovante pour la mise en œuvre de l'alimentation de précision des porcs en croissance élevés en groupe et alimentés de façon rationnée

A feeder prototype has been developed by IFIP in association with an equipment manufacturer to perform precision feeding for 96 group‐housed growing pigs, each equipped with a RFID (Radio Frequency IDentification) ear tag. It consists in five automatic feeders (AF), one weighing‐sorting station (WS), and three areas. The WS station is placed on force sensors and allows for weighing pigs individually, with a 0.1 kg accuracy, and sorting them towards (1) the AF (pigs whose daily cumulated feed intake is presently below the daily allowance), (2) a pen for specific care or departure for the slaughterhouse (after selection by the farmer), (3) the original pen for the other cases. In case 1, the pig enters an AF, both back and front doors close automatically. Its ear RFID tag is recognized by an antenna, and successive doses of feed fall into the trough. Each AF can deliver (min 30 g) and mix two diets, and is connected to a computer that calculates the daily dietary allowances per pig, based on time, body weight (BW) and feeding strategy. In this first trial, all pigs were restricted and two feeding strategies were designed (2‐ vs 9‐ phase strategy) based on the same evolution of amino acid requirements with BW for all pigs. Taking into account pigs not adapted to the system after 9 days (n = 4), accidents (n = 2), health issues (n = 5) and those which failed to consume their feed allowance on more than 4 days (n = 14), data from 71 pigs were available at the end of the fattening period.