Articles - Management

In the previous piece of advice we saw that obtaining foster sows by moving piglets "forward" had some disadvantages, which are solved by moving the sows "backwards".

A very simple system for monitoring the heats of replacement gilts that consists of putting them ear tags at each of the two heats during the quarantine period.

The goal is to inseminate quickly the sows after the first stimulus by the boar, but keeping the stimulation.

The improvement in prolificacy seems to be linked, in many cases, to a lower uniformity of the weights at birth.

We achieved it combining the use of two ear tags per sow together with their strategic location in order to avoid losses due to biting.

The goal is to have readily visible, quick, and handy information of the farm.

The goal is to protect the nipples of the future breeding sows during their first days of life.

Farrowing is a painful and stressful process, especially in the case of gilts and dystocic farrowings.

It's necessary to promote a standardization of the causes of the losses/cullings of the sows. Some rules on which this standardization can be based on are proposed.

This protocol is a very useful diagnostic tool so we can have a comprehensive view of a farm on a certain moment.

Medication of the water in the tank in a quick way and without having to go up a ladder, and achieving a good mixing of the product.

The registration of the sow losses/cullings in the management computer programs is normally something easy, but it is not always given the importance that it really has so, sometimes, the registration is incomplete, with wrong dates and without writing down the cause of the loss/culling. Nevertheless, its correct registration and its later analysis can give us very useful information for the correct technical-financial management of the farm.

System for avoiding carpal injuries in suckling piglets.

When using nurse sows (foster sows) whilst making some piglets "go forwards" before the expected time we end up weaning them one week before. This poses certain problems.

In a very near future we will have an enormous amount of data with more speed and ease than ever, and also from very different origins.

The goal is to increase the agility of the reading process of the body condition of the sows using the Renco device.

The goal is to make the management during the gestation easier using a different colour spray colour each week to mark the tasks carried out with the sows.

Using tie wraps to tie quickly and efficiently navel cords of newborn piglets.

The desired result of the strategic management of replacement gilts at a company level is to minimize the economical losses potentially caused by PRRS.

Only the 17% of the companies use more than the 75% of the collected information and only the 27% of them think that they use it better than their competitors.

As of the 3rd-4th day of lactation it is not recommendable anymore to replace small piglets and piglets with poor a growth rate for good piglets, because it is probable that the teat that has to be used has already dried off due to the scarce stimulation received for several consecutive days.

In many occasions, the location of the heat lamp very near to the head of the sow can bother her.

The author considers which is the ideal day for the mating and sets out the improvements in the results obtained when weaning on Monday.

In previous articles we have talked about the importance of a good sow replacement, and we have explained methods to calculate an adequate sow replacement rate. In this article we are going to show an example of a bad replacement policy and its consequences throughout time on the productivity of the farm.