Pigs feeding behaviours from two different farms, including behaviours during a tail biting event

These data are linked to the article from Ollagnier et al, 2021 (https://doi.org/10.1101/2021.05.11.443554)

Data desription

This data set comprises the feeding behaviours of two herds of grower-finisher pigs weighing between 25 and 100 kilograms. One data set originates from a testing boar station in Sweden and contains data collected from October 2004 to July 2007. The data set comes from a previous retrospective study that Wallenbeck and Keeling published in 2013. The second data set contains data from the experimental pig farm of Agroscope and comprises recordings from November 2018 to April 2020. As tail docking is prohibited in Sweden and in Switzerland, the data are from pigs with intact tails.

The Swedish data set includes data from 42 pens (21 TB and 21 CTL ) of boars (purebred Yorkshire, Landrace or Hampshire) recorded 70 days before and after the TB date. Boars were housed in groups of 7 to 14 animals per pen. Each pen measured 15.7 m² and had a slatted floor and plain resting area. All pigs had ad libitum access to the pelleted feed, which was optimised according to the Swedish nutrition norms for fattening pigs [25]. Water was provided ad libitum and straw was offered daily.

The Swiss data set consisted of 23 pens (six TB and 17 CTL) of females and castrated male pigs (Swiss Large White), recorded 100 days before and after the TB date. Twenty pens (18 m²) contained 11 to 15 pigs each and were equipped with two automatic feeders; three pens (78 m²) were equipped with eight automatic feeders for 31 to 55 pigs each. All pens had straw in racks and sawdust on the floor. Water was available ad libitum through nipple drinkers. The pelleted finisher diet was formulated to have 20% lower dietary crude protein and essential amino acids compared to a standard diet formulated according to the Swiss feeding recommendations for pigs.

Data structure:

Three observations were considered to describe the feeding behaviours of pigs. 

DFV: Number of visits to the feeder (from 0:00 to 23:59:59 that date), unit=n, 

DFC: Total feed consumption (from 0:00 to 23:59:59 that date), unit=g

StdFC: Daily standard deviation of the feed consumption at each visit, unit=g

The data set also contains the following information:

Farm: origin of the feeding behavior data (Swiss or Swedish farm)

ID: unique identification of the pig

date: date at which the feeding behavior is recorded, numerical format.

TBSTART: date at which the tail biting event started in tail biting pens. An arbitrary date has been taken for control pens, numerical format.

PenID: unique identification of the pen.

PenType: control (K) or tail biting (TB). A pen was assigned to the TB category if at least one pig had to be treated for tail damages.