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Feed intake of sows during lactation is important to meet the demands of milk production. The enhancement of feed intake can be achieved through the incorporation of flavors, as they have the potential to stimulate sows through improved taste and aroma.
Methods: A total of 105 sows were used across four batch farrowing groups to evaluate the effects of feeding a feed flavor in lactation diets on sow and litter performance. Sow groups 1 and 2 farrowed in an old farrowing facility during the summer months and groups 3 and 4 farrowed in a new farrowing facility during the winter months. Sows were blocked by body weight within parity on days 110 of gestation and allotted to 1 of 2 dietary treatments. Dietary treatments were a standard corn-soy-based lactation diet (control) or the control diet with the addition of a feed flavor at 0.05% of diet.
Results: The feed intake of sow and performance of the pig was dependent on farrowing facility environment and resulted in many interactions with the feed flavor treatment. From farrowing to weaning, feed flavor sows in the old farrowing house tended to have a higher lactation feed intake, while no difference in average daily feed intake was observed in the new farrowing house. Pigs weaned from feed flavor sows in the old farrowing facility had a higher body weight at weaning and piglet average daily gain from day 2 to weaning compared to piglets from control sows, whereas the opposite occurred in the new farrowing house. Progeny from one farrowing group in the old farrowing facility was followed into the nursery. A total of 360 weaned pigs (5.7 kg) were used in a 2 × 2 factorial in the nursery to evaluate the control and feed flavoring sow effects and nursery diets formulated with or without a feed flavor on growth performance in a 38-d trial. Overall, progeny from feed flavor sows had greater weaning body weights, average daily gain, average daily feed intake, and final body weight during the trial. The piglet feed flavor did not improve overall nursery performance.
Conclusion: In conclusion, pigs weaned from feed flavor sows were heavier at weaning compared to pigs weaned from control sows. Adding the feed flavor increased sow feed intake and piglet average daily gain in a warm environment, but not in a cool environment.
Spinler MS, Gebhardt JT, Tokach MD, Goodband RD, DeRouchey JM, Kyle JM, Woodworth JC. Effect of lactation and nursery diets supplemented with a feed flavor on sow feed intake and lactation performance and subsequent weaned pig nursery performance. Translational Animal Science. 2023; 7(1): txad056. https://doi.org/10.1093/tas/txad056