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How many nurse sows do I need today?

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A simple method to facilitate the daily calculation of the nurse sows needed for the correct running of the farrowing quarters in a hyperprolific sows system.

Goal

Facilitate the daily calculation of the number of nurse sows that are necessary for the correct functioning of the farrowing quarters in a hyperprolific sows system.

Description

The trick entails adding three columns to the daily handling report of the farrowing quarters in order to collect the following information:

  1. Piglets that the sow is able to rear.
  2. Piglets born alive.
  3. Piglets balance (difference between the piglets that the sow is able to rear and the piglets born alive): it may be positive or negative.

With all the farrowings that we have "closed" on that day we will make the final balance of piglets, and it will tell us how many sows we need to obtain so they act as nurse sows.

A sow with its litter

Explanation

When we put the sows in the farrowing quarters we will count the number of viable and available teats in each of them, and with this information and the production record of the sows in previous parturitions we will decide how many piglets that sow is able to rear as long as she has a "normal" labour, and we will write down this datum in the corresponding column.

When the sow has ended its labour we will count the piglets born alive and we will write that down on the corresponding column. Next, we will make the balance between the number of piglets that the sow is able to nurse (as we had previously decided) and the piglets born alive, and we will take note of that in the corresponding place bearing in mind that this balance can be positive or negative, this is:

  • If the balance is - 2 this means that the sow has 2 more piglets than it can rear.
  • If the balance is + 2 this means that we can add 2 more piglets to that sow.

When all the births of that day have been considered closed and ended we will sum the total number of piglets that we have in the balance column and this will give us a total balance of piglets that in the 99% of the cases will be negative: this will mean that there will be piglets in excess and that we will have to find sows for them.

With this balance we will decide how many nurse sows we will need for the number of piglets in excess; this is:

  • If the total balance is -33 and we have sows that are rearing 11 piglets/sow perfectly we will need 3 nurse sows for all those piglets in excess:
    • 33 piglets/11 piglets*sow = 3 sows

The following step will be to find which sows will be the chosen ones following the choosing method that we have in each farm.

The last step will be to remove the piglets in excess from the sows with a negative balance, give to the sows with a positive balance the number of piglets that they are missing to reach the goal we had established and give the remaining piglets to the nurse sows.

The decision relative to which piglets are the ones that we have to remove or add will be taken according to the management protocol established in each farm with respect to this affair.

Example of the use of the daily report

Birth day Sow Place Piglets to be nursed Born alive +/- Final piglets
July 10th 1 12 15 -3 12
July 10th 2 11 10 +1 11
July 10th 3 11 13 -2 11
July 10th 4 11 14 -3 11
July 10th 5 12 11 +1 12
July 10th 6 11 15 -4 11
Total balance -10

Here we have an example of a daily report of the farrowing quarters used to calculate the number of piglets in excess for that day.

According to this report we will have a balance of -10 piglets, and this will mean that after removing and adding the piglets corresponding to the sows according to their individual balance we will have 10 piglets in excess, so we will have to find 1 nurse sow for them.

Article Comments

This area is not intended to be a place to consult authors about their articles, but rather a place for open discussion among pig333.com users.
23-Nov-2012iwiiwiok so from where i should take a nursery sow? and what i should do with her piglets and how old they will be?and if i get -5 total balance then i also have to prepare nursery sow for 5 piglets in this day. I think that it won't be cost-effectiv and it is add me more work each of day
this is my opinion
26-Nov-2012SatoshiSatoshiThis article is very useful.
I have a question.
How do you search the nurse sow?
gilt or younger sow?
And, does sow sometimes has over 13piglets?
26-Nov-2012D.KD.KI would consider best practice, after the final sum of piglets remain in sow 11-12 and the other piglets to enter RESCUE DECK!!
07-Dec-2012iwiiwiwhat we should with sows which have got the first litter.How many piglets we should leve them for farrowing?
Is there anyone who can answer for questions???
02-Jan-2013 jordi-guillaumet_2Hi everybody,

we've published an article about Nurse sows: https://www.pig333.com/management/nurse-sows_6691/
28-Feb-2013ANNAVARAPU SURESH BABUANNAVARAPU SURESH BABUwhat is needful for success pig breeding
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