Page 3 of articles about lactation in Articles

Having a piglet feeder and a lamp in each farrowing pen avoids the annoying moving of these items between rooms and sometimes between buildings.

One of the most frequent recommendations for improving the feed consumption in sows during lactation is using pelleted feed instead of meal. Nevertheless, this recommendation is not very well supported by experimental evidences.

The piglets that suckle in the rear area of the udder start to eat feed before, and this would explain their better adaptation to the weaning.

As of the 3rd-4th day of lactation it is not recommendable anymore to replace small piglets and piglets with poor a growth rate for good piglets, because it is probable that the teat that has to be used has already dried off due to the scarce stimulation received for several consecutive days.

How to make that the sows start their lactation with the maximum number of viable piglets.

When there are not enough teats, the strongest piglet always occupies the place of the weak one, that is left without milk to suckle.

Normally, when we ask a farmer which is their average number of weaned piglets per sow they normally know this parameter, because its calculation is easy, nevertheless...

We are going to see a practical example of how to even out litters after the farrowings in a quick way and minimizing the swappings of piglets.

These findings provide useful information that will assist swine producers in deciding whether or not to reduce litter size in first-parity sows.

This could be very shortly summarized by ‘’Start high and increase fast’’.

Today sows have a milk production of 8-12 liters/day or more. The challenge of feeding the lactating sow is not new and improvement to the genetic potential of lean and prolific dam lines make this issue of critical importance for any breeding herd.

Short weaning to service interval isn’t always a synonym for good management, since we have to take into consideration not only average number of days, but also the effect on the percentage of distribution after returns.

In the previous chapter we saw how level litters by size. Now we will see how to do it by number.

In the previous chapter we discussed the ideal time to level out litters of newborn piglets. Here's how to do it.

With the high prolificacy of sows nowadays, leveling out litters is one of the most hands-on jobs on the farms of today. It is one of the first steps to start lactation successfully.

We have seen the importance of obtaining a sufficient dose of quality colostrum to generate the newborn’s defenses as well as the conflict that this can suppose when we level the litters after birth. Now lets take a look at the importance of rapidly obtaining colostrum and milk to ensure energy supply and minimize temperature loss.