Page 7 of articles about lactation

Finding alternatives to reduce the number of nurse sows by maximising the number of suckling piglets per sow.

The use of milk replacers is helpful, both to increase the number of weaned piglets and to simplify the management of nurse sows.

The objective of supplementing piglets with creep feeds is to reduce the number of under-developed animals during the first days after weaning and, albeit with some differences, it is beneficial for both 21-day and 28-day lactations.

The results show that digestibility of the same diets is indeed higher for gestating and lactating sows than it is for growing pigs.

Making use of the NET energy system for sows to formulate feeds makes it possible to achieve a smooth transition from gestation to lactation diets, which makes the transition period around farrowing easier for the sows.

Piglets have little difficulty finding the feeder but piglets that were not exposed to creep feed during lactation do not recognize the feed as food when weaned.