Inadequate Feed Intake Hurts Sow Performance

摘要

Managing sows during lactation is an ongoing challenge for pork producers. The objective of this research project was to determine the impact of deviations from predicted feed intake on sow performance. Daily lactation feed intake (LFI) values were recorded on 10,716 litters farrowed by purebred Yorkshire and Landrace sows and Yorkshire x Landrace Fl sows. Average lactation length was 18.5 days. Daily LFI values were predicted for each litter based on the breed and parity of the sow, season the litter was farrowed, litter size after crossfostering and the day of lactation. A deviation from predicted daily LFI values was estimated as the difference of the observed daily LFI from the predicted daily LFI value.