Precision feeding in swine production: Rethinking nutrition for profitability and sustainability

Precision feeding is poised to transform the swine industry by tailoring nutrition to the unique and daily changing needs of individual animals or small groups. This advanced feeding strategy is backed by data-driven models and real-time monitoring. Dr. Remus is leading research that could shift the commercial pig industry toward a more economic and sustainable approach to feeding individual and groups of pigs.  

The potential savings and environmental advantages are substantial. According to Dr. Remus, precision feeding can reduce feed costs by 10% to 12%, phosphorus and nitrogen excretion by nearly 40%, and dietary lysine – the most limiting amino acid and a significant cost component – by up to 30%. It can also reduce carbon dioxide emissions linked to feed production by about 8%. 

“It's a good example of how technology can help us to be more sustainable and does not come with additional feeding costs,” she said. “It pays back the investment.” 

These efficiencies are especially relevant in the face of growing concerns over agriculture’s environmental footprint and the economic pressures on producers.

What is precision feeding?

"Precision feeding is providing animals, either individuals or small groups of animals, with daily tailored diets," explained Dr. Remus. “We not only consider the changes in requirements over time, but also everyday changes among animals as a function of their growth performance.” 

Traditional feeding methods offer standardized rations based on developmental stages. This strategy often leads to overfeeding or underfeeding individual pigs, resulting in increased feed costs, nutrient waste and uneven growth. 

Precision feeding addresses this inefficiency by continuously adjusting the nutrient concentration in a pig’s diet based on real-time data, such as body weight and feed intake. This data is collected daily, and algorithms predict how much a pig will eat and grow over a 24-hour period. Two feeds – one nutrient-rich and another lower in concentration – are mixed in varying proportions to meet specific nutrient requirements. 

"We let them eat ad libitum, but we control the amount of nutrients that we're giving to them," said Dr. Remus. "The concentration and density of the diet will change for each animal.” 

In group setups, diets are adjusted to meet the needs of about 80% of the animals in the pen. Individual setups are more granular, assigning a unique diet daily to each pig, even as they remain in the same pen. 

Tailoring for growth and health

Beyond cost and sustainability, precision feeding allows fine-tuned nutritional support that promotes uniform growth and can enhance animal welfare. 

For example, pigs that grow more slowly typically receive the same diet as their faster-growing peers in traditional setups. Precision feeding allows these animals to receive specific amino acid profiles that support catch-up growth, reducing variability in the herd. 

Dr. Remus and her team have been exploring how nutrient modulation can influence growth patterns, including changes to energy for linear gain.  

“We’re working with the profile of amino acids that go into diets and noticed that if we give a different amino acid concentration for slow-growing pigs versus fast-growing pigs, we can bring these slow-growing pigs closer to the average and improve uniformity of the herd,” she said. 

Plus, precision feeding offers an unexpected but critical advantage: early disease detection. Changes in feeding behavior can signal health issues two to three days before clinical symptoms appear. By identifying anomalies early, producers can intervene sooner, potentially reducing treatment costs and improving outcomes. 

“Early disease detection is a big component of health status that is much more visible through the data being captured,” Dr. Remus noted. “This is really important for young pigs – the earlier we can identify disease, the better.” 

Adopting precision feeding has implications that can go beyond feeding strategies. Dr. Remus emphasized that the research team is still discovering the all the possibilities with precision feeding. They have learned that pigs on precision diets respond differently sometimes to those on conventional diets. 

“Precision-fed pigs will not answer the same way to a challenge and will not answer the same way to a fasting. So, we need to relearn nutrition for precision-fed pigs,” she said. This has prompted a shift in her lab’s research from simply precision feeding to a broader focus on “precision nutrition.”

However, automation significantly reduces daily labor once the systems are installed.  

“It’s all automatic,” Dr. Remus said. “Of course, when we work in the trials, there is manual labor, but commercially, once set up – it’s automatic.” 

The process begins with a preset model based on anticipated growth curves, which the feeder then adjusts in real-time using incoming data. Farms can evaluate data weekly or monthly and collaborate with nutritionists to refine models. 

“You can access it from your computer and adjust it on the go,” she explained. “That’s the biggest advantage—you have the data in real-time.” 

Currently, it's very rare that producers and nutritionists know what their animals are consuming and gaining in the day in real-time. For the nutritionist to be able to access that information from his computer at any distance and have a view of daily gain by animal will be game-changing for commercial operations.

Global momentum

While Canada is leading the way in precision feeding for growing pigs, interest is growing worldwide. 

“We have France, we have Spain, we have some Brazilian farms using it,” Dr. Remus said.  

She noted that the level of individualization and real-time responsiveness seen in Canadian research settings is not yet widespread commercially elsewhere. 

Dr. Remus credits international collaborators such as Dr. Bruno Silva in Brazil, Charlotte Gaillard at INRAE in France and Laetitia Cloutier at CDPQ with advancing precision feeding in sows and gilts. And she sees Canada as pioneering in high-resolution individual pig feeding. 

“For growing and finishing pigs, we are ahead of it,” she stated. “I’m already doing the research that we will need in 10 years, and that’s the best approach – to keep pushing forward.” 

Precision feeding represents not just a new way to feed pigs, but a paradigm shift in swine management. It aligns with modern demands for environmental stewardship, economic efficiency and better animal health outcomes. 

Yet, like with many technological advancements, adoption will likely be incremental to start. Dr. Remus said farms may begin with group precision feeding and later scale to individual systems as equipment becomes more accessible and staff more familiar with the approach. 

“Precision feeding is not one size fits all,” said Dr. Remus. “Each farm will use the amount of technology and automation that it needs and feels comfortable with.” 

Looking ahead, she sees parallels between precision feeding and other now-ubiquitous technologies.  

“We could not imagine this a few years ago, and now it’s part of our life,” she said, comparing its trajectory to tools like ChatGPT. “I think it’s the same for the farmer.” 

In time, the precision approach could become standard in swine production, just as computerized feed systems and automated climate controls have before it.