The use of electronic feeders in genetic improvement programs for swine

Electronic swine feeders are used to automatically measure individual feed intake on group-housed pigs, but data from these feeders contain errors resulting from feeder malfunctions and animal-feeder interactions. The objectives of this study were to develop criteria to identify errors in data from an electronic feeder that is predominant in the United States, to evaluate the frequency of errors in data from three consecutive experiments on the same feeders, and to identify factors associated with errors. Data contained 1,878,321 feed intake records (visits) from 1,721 pigs in five replicates and 124 pens. Sixteen criteria were developed to detect errors in seven variables related to entry and exit feed trough weights and times. Logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with presence or absence of each error type in identified visits (visits where the feeder recognized a transponder) from data set 1 using a model that included the fixed effects of replicate (2), sex (2), the linear and quadratic effects of day on test, and the random effects of feeder within replicate, pig within 1 We would like to thank National Pork Board for providing the data used in this study and Dr. Korthals from Osborne Industries, Inc. for his useful comments. This study was supported by Hatch Act and State of Iowa funds of the Iowa Agriculture and Home Economics Experiment Station, Ames, LA, USA (Project No. 3456). 2 Current address: PIC, 3033 Nashville Rd., Franklin, Kentucky 42134 3 Current address: 4900 Berkeley Place, University of California, Irvine, Irvine, CA 92697 4 Correspondence: 225C Kildee Hall (phone: 515-294-7509; fax: 515-294-9150; E-mail: jdekkers@iastate.edu)