Improving milk production – are we missing some tricks?

At the recent ESPHM meeting in Helsinki, I was fortunate to attend an impressive lecture by Chantal Farmer from Canada on factors affecting milk production and mammary development in swine. Although not usually a veterinary topic, with the current trend to use hyper-prolific sow lines it has become increasingly important to be able to feed all these extra piglets. Mammary gland development is critical to good milk production. There are two important development phases, in pre-pubertal gilts (3