To get the best performance from today’s modern sows, it’s important to truly understand what these animals need, especially when it comes to nutrition. In recent years, genetic progress has changed how sows grow and develop. If the industry doesn’t keep up with these changes, we risk feeding them too much or too little, which can affect both their performance and profitability.
By Maude Richer-Lanciault, agr.
Monogastric Nutrition Manager, Trouw Nutrition Canada West
To get the best performance from today’s modern sows, it’s important to truly understand what these animals need, especially when it comes to nutrition. In recent years, genetic progress has changed how sows grow and develop. If the industry doesn’t keep up with these changes, we risk feeding them too much or too little, which can affect both their performance and profitability.
That’s why Trouw Nutrition has updated its NutriOpt™ Sow Model—a tool designed to help farmers more accurately manage sow feeding. These updates include two major improvements: a refreshed understanding of sow genetics and updated equations to better predict how piglets grow during gestation.
The sow body description is an important element required to maintain an accurate prediction of nutrition and feeding management. For example, the weight of a gilt at first insemination affects how much protein (amino acids) she needs during gestation. Each genetics company has different targets for weight and back fat gain per parity. Trouw Nutrition worked closely with the genetics companies to update our model with the latest information. This collaboration helps us to support farmers in making better feeding decisions that are tailored to the specific animals in their barn. We make these kinds of adjustments in our NutriOpst Sow model whenever the genetics companies release new information.
In recent years, we have seen an increase in litter size at birth. More piglets mean sows need more nutrients through gestation. The original equations used in the NutriOpt Sow Model were based on a litter size of 12 fetuses, which no longer reflects the reality of modern large litters. Our updated formulas were developed with recent literature and data from the Trouw Nutrition Swine Research Center in the Netherlands. They take into account larger litters and the energy and nutrients the sow needs to support that growth.
We tested the updated model in validation farms (https://www.trouwnutrition.ca/en-ca/rd/) across Canada and found that it accurately matched what we observed in real-life situations. This gives us confidence that the improvements will help producers feed their sows more precisely during gestation.
Our continuous improvements to the NutriOpt Sow Model empower pork producers to better feed their sow herd, optimize production, reduce feed cost, and control environmental impact. Even small improvements in these factors can have a big economic impact
In summary, continuous improvements to the NutriOpt Sow Model will empower pork producers to better feed their sow herd, optimize production, reduce feed cost, and control environmental impact. Even small improvements in these factors can have a big economic impact.
The NutriOpt Sow Model is only one of the many tools available from Trouw Nutrition
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SOW MODEL |
Model to optimize feeding management in lactation and gestation |
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Swine model and management tool for nursery and grower-finisher, with a module on carbon footprint analysis |
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Benchmarking tool for nursery and grower-finisher |
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SCENARIO |
Economic tool to compare multiple economic scenarios in swine production |
