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The Influence of Alfalfa on Ovulation Rate and Other Reproductive Phenomena in Gilts¹

Ohio Agricultural Experiment Station²

Abstract

In four dry lot experiments, the comparative reproductive performance of gilts was observed when a diet containing 18 percent of suncured alfalfa or a well supplemented legume-free diet was fed prior to breeding and during gestation.

The inclusion of alfalfa did not noticeably affect breeding performance but significantly increased the number of live pigs farrowed and a greater number of the pigs survived to weaning age.

When examined early in gestation, animals which had received the alfalfa diet possessed a greater number of corpora lutea than those fed the legume-free diet.

The data suggest that the diet which contained alfalfa furnished a factor or factors which favorably influenced ovulation rate and the post-natal survival of the litter, and that this factor or factors was or were absent or supplied in insufficient quantity by the legume-free diet.

¹ Published with the approval of the Director of the Ohio Agr. Exp. Sta., Wooster.

² Grateful acknowledgment is made to Merck and Company, Railway, N. J., for supplying B-vitamins; Lederle Laboratories, Pearl River, N. Y., for furnishing the folic acid supplement "Parvo", and Chas. Pfizer and Company, Inc., Brooklyn, N. Y., for the vitamin A used in these investigations.