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Table 4.

Energy requirement of sows during lactation and sow weight loss during lactation (kg over 26 days) associated with three different lactation feed curves (see Appendix 2).

Energy requirement during lactation Curve 1 Curve 2 Curve 3
Sow weight (kg) Maintenance (MJ DE)1 Milk (MJ DE)2 Total/day (MJ) Total/day (kg) Fed (MJ) Weight loss3 (kg) Fed (MJ) Weight loss3 (kg) Fed (MJ) Weight loss3 (kg)

180 22.6 69.0 91.6 6.45 74.3 23.4 85.5 8.4 98.3 -9.1
190 23.6 69.0 92.6 6.52 74.3 24.7 85.5 9.6 98.3 -7.8
200 24.5 69.0 93.5 6.58 74.3 26.0 85.5 10.9 98.3 -6.5
210 25.4 69.0 94.4 6.65 74.3 27.2 85.5 12.1 98.3 -5.3
220 26.3 69.0 95.3 6.71 74.3 28.4 85.5 13.3 98.3 -4.1
230 27.2 69.0 96.2 6.77 74.3 29.6 85.5 14.5 98.3 -2.9
240 28.1 69.0 97.1 6.84 74.3 30.8 85.5 15.7 98.3 -1.7
250 28.9 69.0 97.9 6.90 74.3 32.0 85.5 16.9 98.3 -0.5
260 29.8 69.0 98.8 6.96 74.3 33.2 85.5 18.1 98.3 0.7

1 DE for maintenance (MJ DE/day) = ((110 × BW0.75)/1000) × 4.1853 [26] where BW is body weight.

2 DE for milk (MJ DE/day) = ((((6.83 × ADG × pigs) - (125 × pigs)) × 4.1853)/1000)/0.96) [26] where ADG is the daily gain of sucking pigs (assumed here as 250 g/day) and pigs is the number of piglets sucking per sow (assumed here as 10).

3 (Total energy requirement during lactation - Energy fed )/((5 × 4.1853 × 0.88)/0.96) = weight loss [25].