Soybean hulls (SBH) are a co-product of soybeans and provide a considerable amount of fiber, which helps with satiety and reduces stereotypic behaviors. Dietary fiber is considered good for gestating sows, but it is not known if the use of soybean hulls as the main source of fiber will also result in greater performance of lactating sows.

Therefore, the objective of this experiment was to test the hypothesis that addition of 8 or 16% soybean hulls to diets for lactating sows would improve reproductive performance and immunity of lactating sows compared with sows fed diets based on corn-soybean meal and no soybean hulls.

There were no differences among dietary treatments in temperature of the sows at 24 hours after farrowing. The total number of pigs born per litter, number of pigs born alive per litter, number of mummified pigs per litter, and the number of pigs weaned per litter were not affected by treatment. Total litter weight at birth and litter weight at weaning were also not affected by diet.

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