Ad libitum feeding of lactating sows might ease the feeding management of group and individually housed sows. In this study a commercial feeding regime was compared with diet fed ad libitum to sows crated during the farrowing and lactating period. It was part of a larger project examining alternative farrowing systems.

In separate experiments, two feeding regimes were compared. The experimental building contained 5 farrowing crates. The first 10 sows were fed at commercial levels (2.2 kg/day before farrowing & 5.7 kg/day for litter size n=10, ± 0.4 kg per piglet). This was split between meals at 0700 and 1530 daily, fed via a trough at the front of the crate. For the following 30 sows the five farrowing crates were modified by the addition of an ad libitum hopper to the front of the farrowing crate. All animals received an identical lactating diet (DE=13.2MJ/kg, CP=17.9%) throughout the study. Sows entered the farrowing accommodation at day 110±4 of gestation. They remained crated throughout the experiment until weaning at 24±4 days post-partum. Measurements of sow entry and weaning weights were taken, together with records of sow feed intake and individual piglet weights at birth and weaning.