Effect of supplemental nutrients on the growth performance of sucking pigs

Twenty-seven sows were allocated at their first farrowing to 3 experimental treatments in which their sucking pigs had access to no supplemental milk, liquid cow milk (CM), or a synthetic milk supplement (SM). Liquid cow milk contained 128 g total solids/kg, 24.2 g CP/kg, 30.4 g fat/kg, and 1.8 g lysine/kg, whereas the supplemental synthetic milk contained 200 g total solids/kg, 102.6 g CP/kg, 36.0 g fat/kg, and 9.0 g lysine/kg. All Litters contained 12 pigs and the supplemental milk products were offered ad libitum from Day 4 of lactation until weaning at 28 days of age. Between Days 0 and 14 of lactation, there was no effect of treatment on supplemental milk intake or average piglet growth rate but between Days 14 and 28 of lactation, litters given milk supplements grew faster than litters receiving no supplemental milk. Overall, piglet growth rates between Days 0 and 28 of lactation were greater for litters receiving supplemental milk (297 and 277 g/day for CM and SM litters, respectively) than for litters receiving no supplemental milk (239 g/day). Piglets offered cow milk drank more milk between Days 4 and 28 of lactation than piglets offered the synthetic milk (5.48 v. 2.38 kg/day). Piglets in litters which had access to cow milk visited the supplemental feeder more often (5.5 v. 2.7 visits per suckling interval) and spent longer at the feeder (45.4 v. 14.5 s) than pigs in litters which had access to the synthetic milk supplement. Average sow milk production was 15.4 and 15.3 kg/day between Days II and 14 and between Days 25 and 28 of lactation, respectively, and was unaffected by treatment. Treatment also had no significant effect on average suckling interval on Day 21 of lactation (51.7 min) or carcass composition of representative pigs from each litter killed at 28 days of age. Between Days 14 and 28, female pigs grew faster than male pigs (304.3+/-9.3 v. 292.0+/-9.2 g/day). These results demonstrate that provision of supplemental milk to sucking pigs can improve preweaning growth rate and the response increased as lactation proceeded.