Over the past few decades, reproductive efficiency in sows has improved through genetic selection, resulting in litters that sometimes exceeds 20 pigs. This increase in prolificacy has increased the metabolic demands for AA and energy during both gestation and lactation.

Therefore, an experiment was conducted to test the null-hypothesis that feeding diets based on corn, SBM and up to five crystalline AA will result in the same nitrogen balance, reproductive performance and immunity of sows as that of sows fed diets based primarily on corn, SBM, and no crystalline AA.

In conclusion, feeding a high-protein corn-SBM diet without crystalline AA increased daily nitrogen retention in gestating sows, but feeding low-protein diets supplemented with crystalline amino acids reduced nitrogen excretion. Reproductive performance, including litter size, pigs born alive and pigs weaned, was not affected by dietary treatment. However, sows fed high-protein diets had reduced oxidative stress, greater indicators of immune response during lactation, and greater protein and fat concentrations in colostrum and milk compared with sows fed low-protein diets.

Read the full research report here.