Pieter Langendijk, senior research scientist with Trouw Nutrition, speaks to LifeStart Swine about how producers can manage low piglet birth weights in today’s large litters. Langendijk has worked for Trouw Nutrition for seven years focusing on sow R&D, specifically looking at how nutrition can improve sow performance.

Explore strategies for enhancing mammary development in gilts and sows to improve milk production and piglet growth.

Learn about the benefits of supplemental feeding on highly prolific sow farms, including improved piglet growth rates and reduced pre-weaning mortality rates.

There are quite significant variations observed in the birth weight within the same litter, primarily due to increased sow prolificacy, leading to larger litter size. As hyperprolific sows farrow larger litters, pig producers are challenged by a frustrating trend toward more low birthweight piglets, characterized as poorly developed gut and hence reduced nutrient intake and reduced overall performance. It has recently been reported that birth weight plays an essential role in intestinal development of the neonatal pigs.

Dr. Farmer spoke to attendees about colostrum’s role for the newborn piglet and factors that impact colostrum yield.