The Effects of Gestation Metabolize Energy Levels on Sow Productivity

Restricting the amount of energy a pregnant sow consumes during gestation has been accepted as a very desirable management practice. One benefit of limiting energy is increased litter size at birth because of more fertilized eggs being implanted, less early embryonic death loss and less stillbirths at parturition. Another benefit, particularly at a time of extremely high feed cots, is the economic advantage of less feed consumed during gestation when energy is restricted. At the present time the National Research Council (NRC) recommends 6340 Kcal of metabolize energy (ME) daily for the gestating sow. The study reported herein was conducted to evaluate sow reproductive performance when ME was reduced to an even lower level than recommended by the NRC

Age of Breeding and Reproductive Performance of Gilts

At a time when pigs reach market weight at 5 to 6 months of age, when continuous farrowing allowing gilts to fit into the farrowing program any time of the year is more popular and when feed costs are very high for the 2 to 3 months of unproductive time while the gilt is reaching 8 months of age, it is time to reevaluate our recommendation of age at which gilts should be bred. The following data are from an initial experiment designed to compare reproductive performance of gilts bred at 6 months of age (approximately first estrus) with gilts bred at 8 months of age (approximately third estrus)

Effect of Prefarrowing Dietary Treatment on Pig Production

A method of increasing birth weight and pig survival rate at weaning is desirable because of the large pig death losses normally ocurring during the first week after farrowing. Several management schemes are suggested using commercial products to improve this situation. This study reported herein was designed to test suggested management schemes

Dried Brewers Grains as an Ingredient in Gestation Diets for Swine

There are a number of cereal grain by-products that are used as feed ingredients in livestock diets. Dried Brewers Grains is a by-product that has not been used to any extent in swine diets because of its relatively high fiber content and lack of palatability. This product contains about 26% protein and, when other sources of protein increased in price, it was an economical source of protein. The two experiments reported here were conducted to determine the value of dried brewers grains as an ingredient in diets for gestating swine

High Protein Oats and Animal Fat in Diets for Growing-Finishing Swine

The objectives of the experiment reported herein were to obtain further information on substituting high lysine oats for corn in swine diets and to evaluate the effect of added energy, in the form of animal fat, to these diets

Protein Levels in Diets of Sows During Gestation and Lactation

Research conducted during the past several years has shown that dietary protein could be reduced in gestation diets without affecting number or size of pigs farrowed. A limited amount of research has also indicated that the protein requirement during lactation may not be as great as previously recommended. However, data are limited on the long time effects during successive reproductive periods, particularly when low protein diets are fed during both the gestation and lactation periods. The North Central Swine Nutrition Research Committee agreed that this was an area where more information was needed and a cooperative project was initiated to study the effect of level of protein in gestation and lactation diets over successive reproductive periods. The results reported herein are from a study at the South Dakota Agricultural Experiment Station. These results will be combined with those from other states for an overall analysis of the data

High-Protein (Spear) Oats for Sows During Reproduction

The objective of this experiment was to determine the effect of Spear oats as the only source of protein to sows during gestation and as the only grain source in lactation diets on sow reproductive performance and pig performance to weaning

Lysine and Methionine Supplementation of Growing-Finishing Swine Diets

The objectives of this experiment were to determine the effects of lysine and methionine supplementation of 14% protein swine growing diets and 11% swine finishing diets on rate of gain, feed efficiency and carcass development

Effect of Distillers Dried Grains with Solubles in Pig Starter Diets

During the past year there has been renewed interest in the feeding value of by-products of alcohol production. Previous research has dealt primarily with feeding of distillers dried grains or distillers dried grains with solubles (DDG/S) . Research conducted at South Dakota State University had shown that growing-finishing pigs could be fed diet s containing as much as 20% DDG/S without significantly affecting rate of gain. However , feed conversion was significantly poorer with this level of DDG/S in the diet . Protein and dry matter digestibility were also reduced when diets contained 20% of DDG/S. The experiment reported herein was conducted to evaluate different levels of DDG/S in pig starter diets that were equalized in lysine content

Effect of Prefarrowing and Lactation Feeding Management on Sow and Pig Performance

In several previous experiments conducted by the authors, we have found that pigs housed in open-front buildings with access to an outside concrete feeding floor gained faster than pigs in an enclosed confinement building. The reasons for this difference are associated with increased feed consumption, but the causes of increased feed intake are not clear. The experiment reported herein was conducted to obtain information on the effect of increasing pen space during the finishing period and also the effect of movement of pigs from inside to outside type housing with additional pen space during the finishing period