One of the highest accolades that a new product can get at Denmark’s Agromek show is to be awarded three euro stars, and that was achieved this year by Danish manufacturer Skiold for its new PigSaver feeding system.
This has been designed to reduce piglet mortality in free farrowing systems by providing small amounts of feed (as little as 50g at a time) or other types of occupational materials during the lactation period to help attract the piglets away from the sow.
Typically, the auger-filled system could be used to provide a drop of feed for the piglets to coincide with sow feeding times. This should reduce the risk of the piglets being crushed by the sow.
The key to the system being able to deliver such small amounts of material has been achieved by Skiold literally turning the dosing system on its head. The bung used to set the feed quantity is traditionally lifted in a pipe feeder to allow the feed to drop, but in the PigSaver, the bung is dropped to a wider section where the feed can escape past it. This means that volumes as low as 0.25 litres can be accurately supplied.
The new system – which can deliver between 50g and 500g of material at a time – can also be used to facilitate gentler weaning by feeding different piglet rations during the lactation period, and it can help reduce labour whether it’s controlled manually or automatically.
For more information visit: www.skiold.com