Pig farming, the Danish way
There was a lot of interest in an interview we did with Michael Nielsen, a Danish farmer producing 27,000 piglets/year in his farm.
He will be speaking at FeedNavigator’s conference, Young Animal Nutrition 2020, in Amsterdam in March about piglet productivity, low medication use, and pig farming challenges in Denmark.
Ensuring high levels of animal welfare is a key component of production at his farm, Tilsbaek. There is no tail docking, and the piglets have an extended weaning age, at least four weeks of age, while sows are kept in 100% loose housing.
He looks to avoid diarrhea around weaning and, thus, limit antibiotic use. “When we start off piglets, we use ‘soft’ proteins like a lot of fishmeal and milk powder.”
While still including zinc oxide (ZnO) in post-weaning formulations, the inclusion level is 1250 ppm ZnO or 50% of the maximum dosage allowed. Nielsen is looking to reduce ZnO inclusion levels gradually, going to a further 50% reduction again “very soon.”
