Document Type

Thesis - Open Access

Award Date

1985

Degree Name

Master of Science (MS)

Department / School

Animal Science

First Advisor

George W. Libal

Abstract

Currently, the swine industry is emphasizing productivity from farrow to finish. Production goals are set to farrow 2.2 litters per year, farrow 23 pigs per gilt per year, farrow 26.4 pigs per sow per year, wean 19.8 pigs per gilt per year, wean 24.2 pigs per sow per year, farrow pigs averaging 1.59 kg , wean pigs averaging 7.27 kg at 3.5 wk of age, and market 105-kg hogs at 165 d of age. Nationwide, these goals have not been met despite all the management and technical improvements of the past few years. The national average is only 7.5 pigs weaned per litter and about 1.7 litters per sow per year. This translates to approximately 12 pigs weaned per sow per year. In the past 5 to 10 years, this figure has stimulated the utilization of the white breeds in swine herds. The white or mother breeds include Chester White, Landrace, Large White, and Yorkshire. The white sows are noted for their large litters and increased milking and mothering ability. The increased productivity, however, has stirred the question of additional feed requirements for a more productive female. This question is important as feed costs are the major portion of operating expenses for the hog producer. Swine producers are searching for a feed efficient, productive female. With more productive sows, fewer sows could be maintained in the herd to produce the same number of pigs. This would mean lower capital investment if feed costs were not increased significantly. Little controlled research has been conducted in the United States to establish the caloric intake requirement of the white sows during gestation. The National Research Council energy intake recommendation is 6.1 Meal of Digestible Energy (DE) or 5.8 Meal of Metabolizable Energy (ME) and the result of periodic reductions from the 1950's until the late 1960's. The practice of keeping sows in thin to moderate condition has not changed since the 1960's. The NRC energy intake recommendation is based largely on research with traditional three-way crossbred sows. This research project was designed to determine if sow productivity differed between sows fed 6 Meal of ME daily during gestation or 9 Meal of ME daily during gestation.

Library of Congress Subject Headings

Swine -- Breeding
Swine -- Feeding and feeds
Swine -- Reproduction

Format

application/pdf

Number of Pages

94

Publisher

South Dakota State University

Rights

No Copyright - United State
http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/NoC-US/1.0/

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