Feeding systems should focus on providing sows protection when eating and equal feeding opportunities to prevent competition. Sows should be allowed to consume their entire meal during a single visit to the feeder to minimize aggression at mealtime. Generally, 30% neutral detergent fiber has been recommended to increase satiety; however, soluble fiber on a gram per day basis may be more useful to determine optimal fiber source and inclusion levels to achieve sow satiety. When combining the limited data available, increasing soluble fiber above 100 g/d appears to have the greatest potential to improve satiety.

Effects of nutritional strategies on colostrum quality and yield are variable as influenced by sow colostrum production capacity, parity, farrowing induction protocol, and gestation length. The greatest opportunity to maximize colostrum yield and quality is through proper management of body condition in gestation such that sows are not in a negative energy balance when entering farrowing. Total colostrum fat percentage can be increased through the addition of dietary fat or oil. Colostrum fatty acid composition can also be changed by addition of dietary oil or increased branched chain amino acids. Colostrum protein and immunoglobulins are more challenging to influence.

To improve the growth performance of growing-finishing pigs and maximize economic returns for summer marketing, producers can feed increased dietary energy while pigs are still in their energy dependent growth phase. Removal of high-fiber ingredients such as dried distillers’ grains with solubles can increase dietary energy and improve gain. During the summer when feed intake is low, formulating diets at or slightly above amino acid requirements may be beneficial. Feed additives that increase growth rate should be considered to improve market weight. Market prices and optimal market weights should drive formulation decisions to maximize income over feed costs.

Multiple feeding strategies have been shown to reduce growth in emergency situations. Feeding low protein diets decreased average daily gain (ADG) up to 71% depending on the degree of restriction and resulted in decreased carcass leanness. Feeding excess methionine decreased ADG up to 67%, with limited effects on carcass leanness. Feeding methionine in the diet above 2% may result in body weight loss. Feeding calcium chloride or ammonium chloride decreased ADG up to 98% depending on the dietary electrolyte imbalance imposed and can result in leaner carcasses and potentially poorer meat quality as measured by color, pH, and tenderness.