Pig survival to weaning age is challenging overall, but when a sow produces more pigs than she has teats, producers are challenged to keep pigs alive and doing well. The industry’s focus on increasing litter size has unintentionally led to an increase in the proportion of low birth-weight pigs and prewean death losses which approach 20 percent in some cases <Link>.
In this article, Jennifer Shike summarizes some of the key points from research led by Abigail Jenkins, whose study looked at livability and production outcomes for both pigs and sows when the number of pigs per teat was adjusted. The results take into account sow performance, as well as managing litter size for different production outcomes.
Source: PORK, September 22, 2025. Link. A video summary of functional teat count management is provided. <Link> [14:29]
As we increased the number of pigs nursing relative to functional teat count, the study data would tell us that not only did we not hurt subsequent production, but actually some parameters show an improvement in subsequent sow performance and production when we increased the number of pigs nursing relative to teat count.” – Abigail Jenkins
INSIGHTS: If you work with swine producers or even follow swine production casually, we recommend taking a few minutes to scan the article and view the study video.
Related: International Conference on Pig Livability. Link. The 2nd International Conference on Pig Livability will take place November 5th and 6th, 2025, at the Hilton Omaha in Omaha, Nebraska.
Photo: National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff from article