Eighty-eight crossbred sows were used to evaluate the effects of including sun-cured alfalfa in gestation diets and tallow in lactation diets on reproductive performance for three successive reproductive cycles. Two pelleted gestation diets were fed: (1) no alfalfa and (2) 50% alfalfa. Both diets were fed at the rate of 6,000 kcal of ME/head/day for the first 90 days of gestation. Two lactation diets were fed, one containing no added tallow and the other 8% stabilized tallow. Lactation diets were initiated at approximately 90 days of gestation and fed at a rate of 2.72 kg/head/day until farrowing and offered ad libitum postpartum. A higher percentage of the sows fed the alfalfa treatment completed the three gestation-lactation cycles than did those fed the control diet. Although total pigs farrowed per litter did not differ significantly between treatments, a reduction (P<.05) in average birth weight was observed for the alfalfa-fed group. The number of pigs alive at 14 days was higher for the alfalfa-fed group (P<.05). Survival rate pooled over the three reproductive cycles was approximately 8% higher for sows fed alfalfa; the addition of tallow did not significantly improve survival rate. Sows fed alfalfa diets gained less (P<.05) during gestation than controls, but lactation diets did not affect maternal weight gains. Sows fed the tallow lactation diet consumed 6.8% less feed than the controls (P<.05), but total energy intake for both diets was similar.
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Pollmann et al. (1980) studied this question.