There is not enough milk for all of the piglets, especially at the end of lactation, when their need for nutrients increases significantly. Without any technological intervention, the weight of the litter at the time of weaning will be lower. The groups will have stunted piglets that do not achieve maximum productivity and often do not survive in the conditions of competition for food on the pig farm. The best solution for obtaining a uniform litter of piglets and increasing their weight during weaning is to feed them with a high-quality whole milk replacer.

The use of whole milk replacer for piglets in the maternity pen can increase the weight of each piglet by an additional 0.5-1 kg before weaning, as well as improving litter uniformity, reducing pre-weaning mortality, lowering the need for use of foster sows and preventing exhaustion for lactating sows.

AVA Group, together with Swinco, offers the high-quality milk replacer Opticare Milk and the liquid pre-starter Opticare Preshake.

Opticare Milk is fed to piglets from the third day of birth until weaning in a single phase.

The product is easily soluble in water and has excellent flavour properties. As a result of consuming Opticare Milk, piglets are guaranteed to have a higher feed intake and are better prepared for weaning.

For two-phase feeding, it is recommended to switch to feeding the Opticare Preshake liquid pre-starter on the 10th-12th day after birth and until weaning. It is a transitional product between Opticare Milk and dry pre-starter feed. With use of the weaning process, it becomes more gradual and smoother, the piglets’ digestive tracts get used to digesting vegetable protein and starch, and develop better.

Using Opticare Milk milk replacer and Opticare Preshake liquid pre-starter allows more piglets to be weaned per sow, with a uniform and healthy litter, and reduction in the number of sows accepted.