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The farm brought in 100 Large White GP sows weighing between 60 and 90 kg. In quarantine, the animals were housed with 70% solid floor and 30% slats. As the weeks went by it became evident that the vast majority of animals in that batch were developing excessive hoof growth on both the front and back legs. This type of problem was new to the farm as the population of sows did not have any problem with hoof growth/conformation.
As the animals gained weight, the problem became more evident; it could have affected the longevity of the GP sows. The percentage of affected GP sows was about 75%, all from that single batch.
With the idea of being able to correct the hooves in a manner that was safe for both the animal and the handler, we designed a chute that could be lifted using the tractor front lift. Some of the GP sows were already mated, so the set-up had to be relatively comfortable and allow for quick claw trimming.
We looked through the scrap metal that was on the farm (door frames, silo supports, etc.) and built a cage that was 2 m long x 1.10 m high and 0.55 m wide. To make the task easier since there were more than 70 animals, we also included entrance and exit gates.
Photo 1: Chute designed to be lifted by the front lift of the tractor.
Apart from the recycled metal materials, the only purchase needed was a hoof grinding disk used for trimming cattle hooves to go on the grinder.
When we first used the chute we found that the width was somewhat excessive, so we incorporated two pieces of wood on the sides to allow the animal to be more secure when lifted.
Photo 2: Claw trimming.
The chute proved to be very functional, and once we learned to trim the claws, the time spent per animal was about 5 minutes.
The animals lifted in the chute stayed perfectly still and we had no problems. Once this overgrowth of the claws was fixed, the problem did not reappear.
Photo 3: Hooves before correction.
Photo 4: Hooves after trimming.
