William Close

Efficient sow reproduction is fundamental to achieving a successful, sustainable and economically viable swine industry. The key criteria used to assess the efficiency of sow performance are the number of piglets weaned per litter, per year or per lifetime. The modern hyperprolific sow has a great potential to produce piglets and 30 piglets weaned per year is an achievable target. If performance i ...

Regardless of where pigs are produced the objectives should be the same: to optimise the quantity of pig meat produced per sow per year or per lifetime, at minimal cost. For the modern sow and pig genotypes, with pigs being sold at 100 kg liveweight, the objective should be to produce at least 1 tonne of carcass lean per sow per year. This is achieved as in Table 1.Table 1. Targets for producing 1 ...

Trace minerals are a commonly ignored source of nutrients in animal feedstuffs. Their physiological roles are often underestimated and their presence in the feed in adequate quantities taken for granted. However, they are necessary to maintain body function, to optimise growth, reproduction and immune response. They therefore play an important part in determining the health status of the animal. A ...

For sows to remain hyper-prolific throughout their lives and to maintain a high level of production it is important that their nutritional and metabolic needs are met at all stages of reproduction. It is known that nutrition, by influencing the endocrine and physiological status of the sow, affects both short- and long-term reproductive capacity.In terms of nutrition, major emphasis has been direc ...