The effect of feeding grass hay to pre-weaning piglets

The effect of dietary fibre on pig production has been extensively evaluated. Inspired by observations of the diet of wild, young piglets, this study aimed to examine the possibility of feeding grass hay to suckling piglets besides concentrated creep feed. The sow-nursed piglets in this study were divided into two groups based on balanced sow parities. The control group (CON, n=7 sows) only received a regular, concentrated creep feed, while the treatment piglets (GH, n=8 sows) were also provided with chopped grass hay from 2 days of age until weaning (28d). At weaning, one piglet with a median weight was selected from each litter for post-mortem evaluation. Subsequently, six pigs around median weight per sow were grouped into nursery pens and monitored for their feed intake and body weight gain until 9 weeks of age.