Colostrum, the first milk produced in the first 24 hours by sows post-farrowing, is crucial for the survival and health of piglets. Rich in immunoglobulins, growth factors, and nutrients, colostrum provides essential passive immunity and energy for survival which eventually promotes growth and development. After 24 hours of birth, the immunoglobulin uptake in the gut of a piglet becomes limited. As a piglet does not receive antibodies from the sow during the gestation and in this way is born unprotected, a quick and early intake of colostrum is very important. Therefore, the first 24 hours of life focus heavily on colostrum intake. Every drop matters!
But how much colostrum does a sow produce and how do you know whether each piglet is drinking sufficient colostrum?
In this article, we explain what the sow’s colostrum production is and how you can assess colostrum intake.
A sow produces between 1.91 and 5.31 kg1 of colostrum per lactation. The range already indicates that there is a big variation in colostrum production between sows. The total amount of colostrum produced by the sow is also independent of litter size. This means that when a sow gets more piglets per litter, the colostrum production does not increase with the amount of piglets born. With the current trend towards larger litters, this translates into less and less available colostrum per piglet.
The minimum colostrum intake by a piglet that is highly required for survival is 160 to 170 grams per kg of body weight2. A piglet with a birth weight of 1.35 kg must therefore consume at least 230 grams of good-quality colostrum to survive. The lighter the weight at birth, the more important the intake of colostrum.
If colostrum management is not done properly, it could have a major impact during the suckling period:
It is therefore essential that all piglets quickly consume sufficient colostrum within the first 24 hours of life!
Various methods are available to assess colostrum intake:
To optimize the colostrum intake of piglets on your farm, good colostrum management is very important. To optimally distribute the colostrum, many companies successfully use “split suckling“. Read more about this here.
As every drop of colostrum matters for a piglet, it is therefore also advised to start with providing piglet milk to the piglets 24 hours after farrowing.
Full attention to the further care of the piglets (e.g. climate, hygiene, feed choice, etc.) in the first days after birth, but also care for the sow (e.g. smooth farrowing process, good sow condition for farrowing, correct sow nutrition, etc.) is very important on a sow farm. If you would like to know more about supplementary feeding in the farrowing stable, please contact us.
1 Devillers et al (2004), 2 Devillers et al. (2007)
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