Authors - Professional Pig Community

Peter Brooks

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Peter Brooks came from a Warwickshire farming family and acquired his love of pigs at a young age. He graduated from Nottingham University in 1967 with a First Class honours degree in Animal Production. He received a PhD from Nottingham University in 1970.

Peter has spent his career in Higher Education. He joined what was then Seale-Hayne College in 1972, becoming Head of Agriculture in 1974; a post he held until 1991. His contribution to pig research and curriculum development was rewarded with a Personal Chair (Professorship) in Animal Production in 1991. When Seale-Hayne became part of the University of Plymouth he held posts as Head of Research, Associate Dean, Director of the Food Technology Centre and from 2005-2009 as Head of the School of Biological Sciences. From July 2009, he will be an independent consultant.

Research highlights

In a long career, Peter has worked in many areas of pig nutrition, reproduction, behaviour, and systems development. Peter and his colleagues were the first to describe the male effect on puberty in gilts in 1970. This led to significant changes in gilt management practices. In 1977, his research group showed that the performance of modern sows was responsive to biotin supplementation, leading to significant re-evaluation of the micronutrient requirements of pigs. In the 1980s his group contributed greatly to our understanding of the role of water in pig nutrition; resulting in changes to UK Welfare Codes. During this period they also pioneered the group housing of sows using Electronic Sow Feeders, and provided new insights into sow behaviour that have led to improvements in facility design. Peter has always been an advocate for liquid feeding of pigs and for the last 15 years, his research group has been undertaking pioneering work on the use of fermented liquid feed for pigs. They have developed intellectual property that is currently being licensed to commercial companies for worldwide exploitation.

Peter has undertaken lecturing, management training and consultancy assignments in many countries, where his wide experience, practical knowledge, and communication skills continue to be in great demand.