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Slow-growth diet before breeding offered better long-range health in pigs - EurekAlert
Slowing weight gain for female pigs before breeding showed improvements in performance throughout four breeding cycles, according to Charles Maxwell, professor of animal science for the Arkansas Agricultural Experiment Station, the research arm of the University of Arkansas System Division of Agriculture. A common practice in the industry has been feeding female breeding pigs the same as “terminal line” pigs before breeding. It leads to them being overweight at breeding age. Once they are bred and start lactating to feed their piglets, they lose weight because they eat less. That exacerbates the problem, Maxwell said. His study was supported by partners swine industry and the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture through the Multi-State Project S-1081 "Nutritional Systems for Swine to Increase Reproductive Efficiency," accession number 1003592.
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