Natural ingredients that attract piglets to feed

In my visit to the World Pork Expo in June in Des Moines, Iowa, one of the key topics of discussion with fellow piglet nutritionists and feed professionals at the production level was feed intake. That is, the lack of appreciable feed intake in newly weaned piglets.

Piglets in the U.S. are weaned at about 19 days of age, and because of the large size of farms, implementing strategies like creep feeding, liquid milk replacers, and mat feeding (among the many) are not possible. This is becoming even more relevant as the whole industry is facing a problem of shortage in expert labor to undertake such sensitive work at the farm level.