Nutritional Programs for Gestating Sows
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Energy| Gestating sows differ from pigs in most other stages of production in needing a restriction of feed intake. That creates substantial challenges in the physical management of feed delivery, to ensure that each animal consumes the target amount of feed. Sows that consume too little during gestation enter the challenging lactation phase in a precarious condition with limited body stores of fat and protein to draw upon. Sows that consume too much during gestation eat too little during lactation, when adequate energy intake is most critical.
The fact that the energy requirement of gestating sows is less than their voluntary intake allows the use of fibrous ingredients in the diet, without reducing performance.
Amino acids | The amino acid requirements of gestating sows are relatively low during most of gestation because most of the energy is used for maintenance and the amino acid requirements for maintenance are low relative to the energy requirement. Requirements for both energy and amino acids increase markedly in late gestation.
April 07 2008 09:46 am | Swine