Energy and Nutrient Requirements
The energy and nutrient requirements of the lactating sow depend on her weight, milk yield and composition, and to a lesser extent, the environmental conditions under which she is housed. Therefore, energy and nutrient requirements will be different for every sow and they will vary throughout the lactation period. NRC (1998) presented estimates of the energy and nutrient requirements of 386lb lactating sows at farrowing, with zero or 22lb weight loss during a 21-day lactation and supporting average piglet growth rates of 0.33, 0.44 or 0.55lb per day for a litter of 10 pigs (Table 2).