On-demand: Webinar on sow productivity

To view the webinar on-demand, click here

Nutritional needs of hyperprolific sows

Dr Jordi Camp Montoro is European nutritionist manager at globally operating swine breeder PIC. His presentation was called “Genetic improvement over the years in maternal sows.” Obviously, his company has also witnessed the arrival of hyperprolific sows on the market and has noted that hyperprolificacy has  consequences for their nutritional needs every step of the way.

“It is important to feed gilts for adequate growth, reproductive tract development and adequate bone development,” he said. He added that during gestation, feeding should consider body condition and growth rate. During lactation, he said, it is important to maximise colostrum and milk production, as well as feed intake and minimise body condition loss.

Large trial in Spain

His presentation was followed by Prof Dr Antonio Palomo Yagüe. He is both swine division manager at ADM in Spain as well as associate professor at the Complutense University of Madrid. He shared experiences from Spain, which is currently Europe’s largest pork-producing country. Yagüe summed up various strategies on how to nutritionally deal with hyperprolific sows. One of them included the use of organic minerals.

He then shared the results of a large 2-year field observation in Spain. This included over 125,000 sows from 82 commercial farms. “A full replacement of inorganic trace minerals by organic trace minerals at a reduced dose was the most effective strategy to improve sow productivity.” He pointed to a decreased sow mortality rate, an increased sow retention rate until parity 3, a decrease of the number of piglets born dead and an increase of the number of weaned piglets and the total number of piglets/sow/year.

Large trial in the USA

The last speaker was Dr Daniel Jones, senior swine technical manager at ADM in the United States. He discussed the added value of the ADM glycinate product B-Traxim when used in sow nutrition.

He also shared the results of a large trial. This was conducted on 19 US sow farms, equalling a total of over 70,000 sows. He concluded that sow reproductive and health performance were not impacted by using organic trace minerals. The organic trace minerals increased birth and weaning weights of piglets, as well as their haemoglobin levels. “The consolidated outcome interpretation is that the use of organic trace minerals in this trial reduced the piglet pre-weaning mortality rate.”

To view the webinar on-demand, click here