Effects of feeding pulped hybrid pennisetum on early and midgestation sows

Effects of pulped hybrid pennisetum (Pennisetum americanum P．purpureum cv．Minmu 6), which was fertilized with biogas slurry, on early and midgestation sows (0－80 d) were investigated in this study. There were 4 dietary treatments with different proportions of pulped hybrid pennisetum to feed the sows, including 0 kg/（headd ）(CK), treatment 2, 4 treatment 3 and 6 treafment 4 kg/（headd）. Fresh hybrid pennisetum was converted into dry matter to replace the equivalent feed. The results showed that litter size of the four treatments were 13.42, 10.60, 13.64 and 11.50; and numbers of live cubs in nest were 12.42, 10.30, 12.73 and 9.92, respectively. There was no significant difference among the CK, treatment 2 and treatment 3 (P0.05), while the number of live cubs of treatment 4 was significantly lower than that of the CK (P0.05). The birth weight and rate of healthy piglets of the three treatments were increased to varying degrees compared with that of the CK. In conclusion, to feed 2－4 kg/（headd） pulped hybrid pennisetum to supplement forage fiber for the early and midgestation sows could improve the production performance of sows and the healthg piglets. The best performance was given by fed 4 kg/（headd） pulped hybrid pennisetum, which contained the fiber content of 8.24%~9.41%.