WEDA ProBar

The larvae snack bar for pigs

The issue of curly tails in pig farming is becoming increasingly important: it is now generally recognised that commercially available activity and play materials such as wood or balls are not sufficient to distract the animals in the long term. For this reason, pig farming specialist WEDA Dammann & Westerkamp has developed the ProBar to provide pigs with a tasty snack of live larvae on a regular basis while they are rooting around. The snack encourages the animals to keep searching and to spend less time on the curly tails of their fellow pigs. With the newly developed ‘Pro-Bar’, WEDA offers livestock farmers an innovative solution to positively influence pigs in three ways: they are kept busy, receive a tasty portion of feed and also consume valuable animal protein.

Challenges of the previous housing materials

Traditional enrichment materials often do not fulfil all of the pigs’ needs. It can keep the animals occupied, but usually not for long enough. Furthermore, it offers no additional nutritional value. Furthermore, many materials are not sustainable and require regular replacement, which involves additional costs and effort.

The solution: ProBar

WEDA’s ProBar combines employment, reward and nutritional support in one system. The larvae are treated gently and dosed safely. The dosage is around 4 to 6 larvae at freely adjustable time intervals, so that the animals cannot eat their fill.

How the insect snack bar works:

1. occupation:
The pig is kept busy by searching the snack bar. It touches the dispenser, which automatically dispenses a small number of insect larvae into the trough on the floor.

2. reward:
The insect larvae fall into the trough bowl, where the pig happily picks up the tasty snack.

3. nutrition:
Eating the insect larvae provides the pig with valuable animal protein.

4. protection of conspecifics:
The distraction effectively prevents tail biting!