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The effect of chilled drinking water on the growth rate and feed efficiency of grower pigs

16 Pages

Author(s): Sara Willis, Gary Collman

In growing pigs, high ambient air temperature has a direct effect on feed intake (Black et al., 1999, Giles 1992, Lopez et al. 1991) which influences growth rate and feed efficiency. This group demonstration project was undertaken to study the effects of chilled drinking water on the performance of growing pigs.
The results showed the provision of cooled drinking water had no significant impact on growth performance (ADG) or P2 backfat of grower pigs. It is speculated that this result was due to the mild summer temperatures experienced during 2008. However, the milk vat proved to be a reliable and cost-effective tool for providing a constant source of cooled water to growing pigs.

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