Support plan for piglets -turning losers into winners

摘要

Larger litter sizes are often accompanied by low average birth weight and less milk per piglet. To help to achieve the genetic potential of these piglets and boost survival and growth rates they clearly need a support package. Recent nutritional research showed that by increasing creep feed intakes, supplying milk replacer pre/ post-weaning and feeding blood plasma can improve litter performance. Improvements in genetics, feeding and management have led to larger litters and the benchmark is still rising in many countries. In the Netherlands the average number of live born piglets per litter in 2011 was 13.7, with the top 20% achieving 15.1 piglets per litter.