Author : Boonlue Phuagphong

Summary : Three studies were conducted to evaluate some of the sow and litter management practices. In study 1, 35 Large White and seven American Landrace sows and their litters were used in this study to determine the production efficiency of sows and piglets weaned at 35 days old and given seven creep feed rations with different sources of protein from two to eight weeeks of age. Results showed that creep feed had no effect on the rate of growth of the piglets during the suckling period. It was found however, that the weight at eight weeks old, feed conversion rates, feed consumption, and cost per kilogram gain in weight of pigs fed 18 percent protein creep feed with cooked soybean as a source of protein were as efficient as those fed creep feed with soybean oil meal, fish meal, and 15 percent dried skimmed milk as the sources of protein. These pigs were significantly heavier at eight-week old than those in other treatments. In study 2, 20 purebred American Landrace sows with the same litter order were used to compare the performance of adopted and legitimate pigs raised by the same sow to weaning age. Piglets raised by their own dams were significantly lighter in weaning weight than those raised by foster dams at 35-days weaning. Males had significantly heavier weaning weight than females. No significant differences were found in weaning weight between the progenies of sows A and B. In study 3 three experiments were conducted to find out the effects of lincospectin and quixalud on the production performance of newly weaned normal and runty pigs. The normal pigs fed a combination of antibiotic and growth promotant and the antibiotic alone as recommended by their manufacturers had significantly better performance in all production traits than those pigs fed growth promotant alone. No significant differences were observed in feed conversion rate, gain efficiency, and cost per kilogram gain in weight of runty pigs fed creep with quixalud, lincospectin, and the combination of the two.