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Vol. 22, No. 9September 2000
Refereed Peer Review
FOCAL POINTKEY FACTS
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Management can use a simplemethod to prevent energydeficiency in lactating sows.
Feeding ManagementDuring Sow Lactation
Kansas State University 
Steve S. Dritz, DVM, PhDMike D. Tokach, PhDRobert D. Goodband, PhD Jim L. Nelssen, PhD
ABSTRACT:
The scientific evidence is clear that the energy intake of sows should be maxi-mized during lactation. However, swine farm personnel often do not provide enough dietaryenergy to lactating sows. This article briefly reviews the scientific evidence, provides casestudies in support of maximizing energy intake during lactation, and describes a simple way toensure that energy intake is maximized during this period.
T
he optimum feeding patterns for lactating sows continue to be debatedamong veterinarians. However, research clearly shows that restrictingfeed, protein, or energy intake during any period oflactation will reducemilk production, decrease litter weaning weight, and impair subsequent repro-ductive performance.
1–5
The adverse influence on reproduction is particularly ev-ident during summer months and can contribute to seasonal infertility.Energy intake during lactation is especially important for subsequent fertility in early-weaned sows. With the implementation of early-weaning strategies, thelitter weaning weight has also become more important because pigs weaned atheavier weights are easier to manage in the nursery.Many commercial swine farms fail to provide sufficient dietary energy to theirlactating sows. This article briefly reviews the scientific evidence for maximizingfeed intake during lactation and provides practical suggestions for implementingfeeding programs in the farrowing house.
MAXIMIZING ENERGY INTAKE
 Amino acid and energy intakes are important in influencing lactation and thereproductive performance of lactating sows. Veterinarians
understanding of theprotein and amino acid requirements of lactating sows has grown considerably in recent years. Sows need more lysine to minimize muscle loss and improvesubsequent reproductive performance than is required for milk production.
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Inaddition, amino acids other than lysine, including the branched-chain aminoacids valine and isoleucine, are more important for maximum milk productionthan was previously believed.
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Studies determining amino acid requirements
CE
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Energy intake during lactationaffects subsequent fertility inearly-weaned sows.
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A lactating sow’s need for dietarylysine depends on energy intake.
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The best way to increase energyintake is to increase the total feedintake.
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The feed intake of lactatingsows can be verified fromfeed deliveries.
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Simple methods can be followedto increase the feed intake oflactating sows.
 
for sows of modern, high-producing, lean genotypeshave been reviewed.
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 Although this article focuses on the energy require-ments of lactating sows, veterinarians should under-stand that the lysine requirement during lactation is in-fluenced by energy intake (Figure 1). At low energy intake (6.5 Mcal/day), increasing lysine intake from 9to 45 g/day has little effect on milk yield.
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However, asenergy intake increases to 16.5 Mcal/day, the responseto greater lysine intake increases markedly. These re-sults reveal that milk yield depends on lysine and ener-gy intakes because the response to one is contingent onthe intake of the other. Thus energy intake must beconsidered when recommending lysine for lactatingsows.Energy and lysine intakes also interactively influencethe secretion of reproductive hormones and subsequentreproductive performance (Figure 2).
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 At low energy in-take (6.5 Mcal/day of metabolizable energy), increasedlysine intake has little influence on the mean secretionof luteinizing hormone (LH).The influence of lysineintake on LH secretion increases as energy intake in-creases. Thus LH secretion, like milk production, is re-duced by the restricted intake of lysine or energy. Con-sequently, if energy intake is limited, increased dietary lysine has little effect unless energy or feed intake is in-creased simultaneously.Sows of modern, high-producing genotypes usually need more energy than is provided by spontaneousfood intake.
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Therefore, these sows typically must mo-bilize body reserves during lactation. To maximize thelongevity of these sows, management must use a feed-ing strategy that maximizes feed intake during lactationand minimizes the loss of body stores of energy andprotein.
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The impact of feed intake during lactation on subse-quent reproduction increases as weaning age decreases.
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 As weaning age is reduced, increased feed intake duringlactation is associated with a greater improvement infarrowing rates (Figure 3). The use of high dietary fatlevels during lactation to increase dietary energy canimprove litter weaning weights but may actually impairsubsequent reproductive performance by reducing thenumber of LH peaks in early lactation.
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Nevertheless,fat intake must
not 
be limited during lactation. Themost practical method of increasing energy intake is toincrease total food consumption.
Compendium 
September 2000Food Animal
ENERGY AND LYSINE INTAKE
I
FEED INTAKE AND WEANING AGE
I
LUTEINIZING HORMONE
3530252015109 15 21 27 33 39 45
Lysine Intake (g/day)
   M   i   l   k   Y   i  e   l   d   (   l   b   )
16.511.56.5
  
Figure 1—
Influence of lysine and energy (Mcal/day of metab-olizable energy) intakes on milk yield. (From Tokach MD,Pettigrew JE, Crooker BA, et al: Quantitative influence of ly-sine and energy intake on yield of milk components in theprimiparous sow.
 J Anim Sci 
70:1865, 1992; modified withpermission)
0.40.30.20.109152127333945
Lysine Intake (g/day)
   M  e  a  n   L  u   t  e   i  n   i  z   i  n  g   H  o  r  m  o  n  e   (  n  g   /  m   l   )
  
16.511.56.5
 
Figure 2
Influence of lysine and energy (Mcal/day of metab-olizable energy) intakes on luteinizing hormone secretion.(From Tokach MD, Pettigrew JE, Dial GD, et al: Character-ization of luteinizing hormone secretion in the primiparouslactation sow: Relationship to blood metabolites and return-to-estrus interval.
 J Anim Sci 
70:2199, 1992; modified withpermission)
High
a
Med
a,b
Low
b
95908580751013161922
  
Weaning Age (days)
   F  a  r  r  o  w   i  n  g   R  a   t  e   (   %   )
Figure 3
Influence of three lactation-feed intakes on subse-quent farrowing rate. Lines lacking a common superscriptletter differ (
< .05). (From Koketsu Y, Dial GD, King VL:Influence of factors on farrowing rate on farms using early  weaning.
 J Anim Sci 
75:2582, 1997; with permission)
 
STABLE FEEDING THROUGH FARROWING
 Although most nutritionists and veterinarians agreeon the goal of maximum feed intake throughout lacta-tion, there is considerable debate on how to achieve it.How quickly should feed intake be increased in early lactation? Some veterinarians advocate feeding extreme-ly low levels of feed (2 lb or less) before and immediate-ly after farrowing. However, field experience shows thatextremely low intake during this period limits the pro-ducer
s ability to increase feed intake rapidly duringearly lactation. In extreme cases, ulcers can result fromthe extended period of low intake around farrowing.The sows go off feed or have a noticeable dip in feedintake. After the long period without feed, sows often over-eat if given free access to feed. However, instead of cor-recting the cause (i.e., the extended period of little orno feed intake before and immediately after farrowing)of this problem, many producers try to resolve it by limiting the feeding times and amounts of sows that failto feed. Sows should always have access to fresh feed tomaximize milk production and subsequent reproduc-tive performance. Therefore, before farrowing and aftersows have been moved to farrowing stalls, we recom-mend feeding 4 to 6 lb of feed per day.
FEEDING PRACTICESCase 1: Effect on Litter Weaning Weight
One study tracked the average pig weaning weightsfor the first 20 weeks of production on 11 farms (Fig-ure 4). All farms have the same sow genotypes and nu-tritional programs. The average weaning age was 16 ±1days. The average pig weaning weight from the first 10farms was 9.2 lb, with the best farm averaging 10.5 lb.The average pig weight from farm 11 is 3.4 lb greaterthan the average of the first 10 farms or 2.1 lb greaterthan the best of the first 10 farms. In addition, the lit-ter weaning weight on farm 11 also was increased (Fig-ure 4). Thus the increased average pig weight was notdue to having fewer pigs weaned per litter. The litter weaning weight of farm 11 is nearly 30 lb greater thanthat of the best of the first 10 farms. Why are the weights so much greater at farm 11?The employees on farm 11 made a commitment tokeep feed in the feeder at all times. They feed multipletimes per day and readily determine the reason a sow fails to eat. We also believe that providing frequentfeedings of smaller amounts of feed prevents sows fromgorging or refusing feed. What are the implications of the difference in averagepig weaning weights on these farms? Figure 5 illustratesthe normal distribution of pig weights for two farms with 9- and 12-lb average pig weaning weights. For thefarm with the 9-lb average pig weight, approximately 70% of the pigs weigh less than 10 lb. However, for thefarm with a 12-lb average weight, only 20% of the pigs weigh less than 10 lb. Pigs from that farm will be mucheasier to manage in the nursery than will be pigs fromthe farm with a 9-lb average weight.
Food Animal
Compendium 
September 2000
MAXIMIZING MILK PRODUCTION
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TRACKING WEANING WEIGHTS
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FREQUENT FEEDINGS
Farm
   A  v  e  r  a  g  e   P   i  g   W  e   i  g   h   t   (   l   b   )
1312111098765
  
12345678910118.49.28.47.99.49.39.79.41010.512.6
 
Figure 4AFigure 4BFigure 4
 Average (
 A 
) pig and litter (
B
) weaning weights (day 16) at 11 farms; farm 11 feeds its sows several times a day.
Farm
   L   i   t   t  e  r   W  e   i  g   h   t   (   l   b   )
130110907050
  
123456789101170737265777485858489118
 
   R  e   l  a   t   i  v  e   F  r  e  q  u  e  n  c  y   (   %   )
504030201009 lb02468101214161820
  
12 lb
 
Figure 5
Distribution of pig weights at two average weaning weights.
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