Managing Large Litters: Can Sows Nurse More Pigs Than Teats?

More is better until it’s not. In the past 20 years, live born per litter has increased by about four pigs for the average pork producer. Abigail Jenkins, director of nutrition for Tosh Farms in Henry, Tenn., says this may sound like a great thing at first. The problem is that even though more pigs are hitting the ground, functional teat count of the sow has not increased at the same rate as the change in live born.

“For a long time, we’ve been taught that you load sows up to the same number of pigs as she has teats,” Jenkins explained at the Allen D. Leman Swine Conference. “However, as productivity has improved, producers are being faced with the challenge of a hyperprolific sow who has more pigs than teats. What do we do with these additional pigs?”

Jenkins says there are few ways to handle extra pigs – artificial rearing, fostering to nurse sows (sows who have weaned a litter of their own and are pulled back into a room of newly farrowed pigs to support those extra piglets), or allowing the sow to nurse more pigs than teats. All of these options pose their own set of negative consequences on piglet livability.

“Artificial rearing isn’t always practical and comes with some drawbacks, so the most commonly used strategy for more pigs than teats is nurse sows,” Jenkins says.

With nurse sows, however, you can’t get additional colostrum into the piglets because the sow is producing mature milk at this point. The piglet’s chance of getting colostrum stops at cross fostering.

“We also have to consider the increased risk of disease transmission because we’re moving that sow, typically from a room of weaned pigs that may have some other diseases or illnesses, into a room of newborn pigs that are born severely immunocompromised,” Jenkins says.