ABSTRACT

Precision livestock farming is an innovative production approach that improves the management of livestock by using the principles and technologies of process engineering (Wathes et al., 2008). Precision animal feeding is part of the precision livestock farming approach and involves the use of feeding techniques that deliver the right amount of feed with the right composition at the right time to a group of animals (Parsons et al., 2007; Niemi et al., 2010; Cangar et al., 2008; Pomar et al., 2014) or to individual animals within the group (Andretta et al., 2014, 2016b). The on-farm application of precision feeding requires the design and development of measuring devices (e.g. to measure the animals’ feed intake and body weight [BW]), computational methods (e.g. to estimate voluntary feed intake and nutrient requirements in a timely manner based on the animals’ actual growth) and feeding systems capable of providing the required amount of feed with a composition that will optimize animal performance while minimizing the use of farm resources (Pomar et al., 2009). Meeting individual pig nutrient requirements on a daily basis using precision feeding techniques is the most efficient method of improving nutrient efficiency while ensuring the sustainability of growing pig production systems. This chapter describes the principal sources of variations in nutrient inefficiency, the methods used to estimate the amount of nutrients required by animals and the impact of using precision feeding techniques in growing-finishing production systems.