Good oocyte
(egg) production and quality have a major impact on litter size and sows need
careful nutritional management to achieve it, particularly during the
wean-to-service period.
Improving
litter size is currently a key target for the industry, to help close the
performance gap with our European competitors, and managing oocyte production
and quality is the first opportunity, right at the start of the breeding cycle,
to optimise it.
There’s a
challenge to satisfy the high nutritional demands of late lactation and also
provide the right nutrients for good quality oocytes during the last 14 days
before the sow’s next ovulation. In particular, it is the last 7 to 10 days
before ovulation where nutrition has the greatest effect.
Many producers feed ad lib lactation diets
before service to help replace sow body condition but more are now moving to
tailored wean-to-serve diets with supplementary ingredients to target the
different needs, including oocyte production. The options include supplementary
sugars and organic acids.
Pig nutritionist Andrew Zarkos-Smith is one of a number
who are working with pig producers on ‘wean-to-service’ nutrition. He says
that, rather than feeding only a basic lactation or gestation diet, these diets
need to be formulated specifically for every farm. There can be an improvement
of an extra 0.5 piglets per litter at least by feeding such a diet.
The diets include
sugars such as dextrose and sucrose which research has shown boost the sow’s
insulin levels which, in turn, increases the luteinising hormone and stimulates
her to ovulate more vigorously. This
means a larger number of quality eggs is released for potential fertilisation.
BPEX is currently running a feeding trial to monitor the impact of feeding sugars. There are
also 12 pig producers taking part in a
BPEX body condition scoring trial, scoring sows as they go into farrowing and
as they come out. This is to try to find links between changes in body
condition and identify sows within the herd which are most at risk of fertility
issues.
My full article on this topic is in the September issue of Pig World magazine.
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