For newborns, dish drinkers are clearly superior. Restricted nipple-drinker flow rates can impair water intake by pigs and, under severe restriction, growth rates as well. Individual nipple drinkers need to be checked regularly to ensure against blockage or malfunction. These data suggest that excessive flow rates, leading to wastage, may be of more concern than inadequate flow rates. The critical question for pork producers is what the minimum and maximum flow rates must be to optimize health and productivity.
Research is extremely limited.
Only estimates can be provided in the absence of definitive experimental data. In all cases, the major effect of excessive flow rates is excessive wastage. Liquid feeding, whereby water and feed are presented to the pig as a pre-formed mixture, offers an alternative to separate feeders and waterers. Although the primary objective of liquid feeding is to increase feed intake, reducing water waste may be a notable additional benefit. Wet-dry feeders are a variant to nipple drinkers, combining many features of nipple and dish drinkers.