A study on four feeding strategies of 100% organic origin for piglets concerning performance, health status, losses and economy in organic agriculture

Summary

Organic agriculture is defined as a low-external-input-system but piglets’ necessity for high quality diets seems to contradict low-external-input feeding strategies. Hence, a total of 361 piglets was tested from day 14 – 63 post natum concerning performance, health status, losses and diet costs by means of four feeding strategies of 100%
organic origin: (i) high-external-input diet, (ii) medium-external-input diet, (iii) lowexternal-input diet, each with grass-clover-silage as roughage source, and (iv) above
mentioned low-external-input diet with straw replacing grass-clover-silage. The highexternal-input-diet achieved the significantly highest live weight gain; all other
strategies were similar at a lower level. There were no differences in health status and loss rates between the four strategies. Low-input-strategies were economical at best in producing a standardized 20 kg piglet. A verification of the results is necessary with a higher number of piglets for a final recommendation.