Bigger litters, higher productivity… but also new challenges? In recent years, hyperprolific sows have reshaped pig farming, bringing notable gains in efficiency. Yet behind the promising figures emerge important concerns: longer farrowings, lighter piglets, and increased attention needed for animal welfare.
This discussion sheds light on the hidden costs of hyperprolificacy—from prolonged farrowings to reduced birth weights—and introduces a targeted nutritional solution to help producers optimise performance while supporting sow and piglet welfare.
Hyperprolificacy: when productivity challenges welfare
With more piglets come new challenges: longer farrowings, lighter newborns, higher mortality, and increasing pressure on both the sow and the farmer. The race for efficiency is pushing biological limits, and the impact on animal health, performance, and profitability cannot be ignored.
Unveiling the hidden costs of larger litters
One of the first and most visible consequences of hyperprolificacy is that farrowings take longer. As shown in Figure 1, there is a clear correlation between the number of piglets born and the duration of farrowing.
Prolonged farrowing is a challenge and a risk for sows and their piglets. If the interval between piglets increases, human intervention becomes necessary, which can be a hindrance and a cost in farms with hired labor and/or low-skilled labor. Moreover, the last-born piglets suffer the most. A 2023 study by Schoos et al. shows that beyond 18 piglets, this interval increases significantly. Unfortunately, longer farrowings increase the risk of mortality for these last-born piglets, and those that survive are often weakened.
Reduction in birth weight, a growing concern
Another consequence of increased sow prolificacy is the reduction in piglet birth weight. They are born smaller: a meta-analysis by Moreira et al. (2020) indicates that each additional piglet reduces birth weight by 40g!
Table 1: Rearing performance based on piglet birth weight (Quiniou et al., 2017)
Knowing that 100g less at birth translates into 1.5 more days of fattening, reductions in birth weight can significantly impact overall performance and profitability.
Birth weight also affects piglet survival under the sow (Figure 2). It has been repeatedly shown that when a piglet weighs less than 1kg, its survival chances drop significantly. This is likely because smaller piglets are less vigorous and less able to compete for the sow’s teats.
Colostrum: the critical first feed under pressure
It is therefore crucial that the sow can produce enough high-quality colostrum and milk to meet the needs of her litter—especially to help the smaller piglets to get a good start.
Colostrum production is a real challenge, as the sow’s colostrum yield is not related to the number of piglets born! This means that the more piglets there are, the less colostrum each one receives.
Colostrum is not only a source of immune protection for piglets—it is also their first source of energy. In 2012, Quesnel et al. demonstrated that colostrum intake is strongly linked to mortality: below 200g of colostrum ingested per piglet, survival rates drop drastically (Figure 3).
This overall heavy production has negative consequences on the sow: her metabolism is subjected to multiple stresses. In addition to the stresses of farrowing and milk production, the sow must also adapt to a huge change in feed intake. From a daily feed intake of about 3kg during the gestation phase there is a sudden threefold increase during lactation to meet the increased nutritional needs.
In summary, the literature highlights that hyperprolificacy is a multifaceted topic, encompassing a wide range of challenges (overview figure 4).
Targeted nutritional support: a key to success
As the demands of hyperprolific sows continue to grow, providing effective, science-based nutritional support during this critical period has become a key lever to help maintain sow condition and improve piglet outcomes.
In this context, our partner Jefo has developed Porcinat POP—a targeted nutritional solution designed to support sows around farrowing and enhance piglet vitality at weaning. This innovative solution benefits from Jefo Matrix Technology, a protection tailored to pigs that also facilitates handling in the factory.
Porcinat POP improves the duration of farrowing and piglet born weight, which was demonstrated by a trial conducted on a French farm and presented at Nutriforum 2025.
Four consecutive batches of Topigs TN70 sows were divided into two treatment groups:
| Treatments | Diet provided from entry into the farrowing unit until weaning |
| Control | Control diet |
| Jefo | Control diet + Porcinat Pop |
The average total number of piglets born per litter is similar between the two groups (Control: 19.3 vs Jefo: 19.2). The duration of farrowing is significantly reduced by more than one hour in sows receiving the feed supplemented with Jefo micronutrients compared to the control sows (Figure 5).
The results showed that piglets born from the sows supplemented with Porcinat Pop are also significantly heavier than those from the control sows, with an increase of +43g.
The effect on litter weight is visible across most of the sow parity ranks (Figure 7). Due to constraints in farm management, only multiparous sows could be studied in this trial.
Supplementing sows with the Porcinat Pop significantly reduced farrowing duration and improved piglet birth weight. The combination of these two factors allows piglets to get a better start and improves litter weight at weaning.
Bories et al. (2010) demonstrated that the duration of farrowing is correlated with the total litter weight. In our study, we were able to show that this parameter can be improved through Porcinat Pop dietary supplementation. Sows in the Jefo group showed similar backfat thickness losses as those in the Control group. Thus, these sows managed to mobilize the same amount of body energy despite a numerical increase in weaned litter weight.
In conclusion, dietary supplementation with Porcinat Pop has proven effective in reducing farrowing duration and enhancing piglet birth weight. These improvements offer a tangible advantage in managing hyperprolific sows—ensuring better outcomes from birth to weaning while safeguarding both performance and welfare.
Contact us to learn more about this solution and discuss support for managing hyperprolificacy:
Alessandro Schienoni: alessandro.schienoni@garzantispecialties.it
Marco Montagnani: marco.montagnani@garzantispecialties.it
