The effect of restricting pen space and feeder availability on the behaviour and growth performance of entire male growing pigs in a deep-litter, large group housing system

Abstract

Recent research has shown that pigs housed in large groups on deep-litter have longer feeding events with less disruption from other pigs compared to pigs maintained in conventional housing systems. It has been speculated that this change in feeding behaviour is associated with increased fat deposition and feed conversion ratio. An experiment was designed to examine the effect of different pen space allowance and feeder availability on the behaviour and growth performance of growing pigs in a deep-litter, large group system. A 2 x 2 factorial experiment examined the effects of pen space and feeder space from 10 to 23 weeks of age, using 2460 crossbred (Large White x Landrace) entire male (no..