Tips for Precision Feeding Lactation Sows

For most sow farms, feeding a single whole herd lactation diet is commonplace. Practically, lactation rooms have been designed with a single feed line and drops for each lactation crate. Because of this, producers and nutritionists are often left to select a single lactation diet with the same nutrient level for all sows in the herd. However, advancements in sow lactation feeding equipment technology now allows for two diets (a low- and a high-nutrient diet) to be fed and blended to achieve a daily nutrient intake target over the course of the lactation period. Also, lactation nutrient requirement models predicting the daily nutrient needs based on litter performance and feed intake provides data for the diet blend to change over the lactation period. Optimal Nutrient Intake Genetic advancements in parity 1 gilts have documented their potential for higher litter size than older parity sows in the herd. This means the need to meet a target amino acid, energy and digestible phosphorus