Your Feeders Know More Than You Think: Mining Feeder Data to Understand Pig Social Behaviour

Pigs raised in groups establish social hierarchies that affect how well the whole pen grows and converts feed. Dominant pigs often waste energy on aggressive interactions, hurting their own feed efficiency and stressing pen mates. Researchers from the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement, Laval University, and the Centre de développement du porc du Québec analyzed over 18 million feeder visits across five Canadian purebred pig farms, using social network analysis to develop new indicators of aggressive behaviour from automatic feeder records. Pigs frequently involved in displacements at the feeder showed worse growth and feed efficiency. Pens with more stable social hierarchies performed better overall. Both feeding and social behaviour traits showed moderate-to-high heritability (7–59%), meaning they could potentially be improved through genetic selection. Your automatic feeders may already be capturing hidden social dynamics that hurt pen performance. In the future, these insights could help breeders select for calmer, more efficient pigs, reducing aggression, improving welfare, and protecting your bottom line.