Evolution of nutritional concepts and feeding approach in sows: history and perspectives

Abstract

In recent years, with the use of hyper prolific sows, the reproductive performance of sows has drastically improved. Currently, on many farms in EU, the average litter size exceeds 15 piglets at farrowing and 13 at weaning. These changes in performance have been the major drivers for the evolution of sow nutritional requirements during pregnancy and lactation. At the same time, a large amount of scientific knowledge has been generated over the past 30 years that has allowed, with the help of mathematical modelling, a holistic approach to supplying energy, amino acids and minerals to sows. The aim of this review is to describe evolutions in the approach to sow feeding over the past few decades and show how the current state of knowledge on sow nutrition can be used to develop models and decision support tools and improve feeding strategies in practice. Examples are given to illustrate how using such tools can help optimize the productivity of sows. Until recently, maximizing reproductive performance of sows and their litters has been the main objective considered when defining nutritional supplies. Currently, new objectives related to the increasing societal concern for animal welfare and the environment have become the priority. This will play a major role in the future evolution of pig farming systems and the management and feeding of sows, which calls for new scientific knowledge and development of new technologies, especially those from the digital area.