2
Goal
Knowing quickly the age of a group of gilts and reducing the risk of the loss of that information.
Explanation
In order to carry out correctly the treatments and the vaccination programmes of the replacement gilts as well as entering the gilts on the farm at their due age, it is essential to know the real age of the animals.
In farms in which they produce their own replacement gilts (self-replacement) or in which the replacement gilts come from an outer source but the gilts are bought at a very young age, it is more frequent that there are problems due to the lack of knowledge of the real age of the replacement gilts.
In order to know the age of the gilts at all times we can hang file cards with their birth date or the date when they entered the nursery. Nevertheless these index cards sometimes get lost.
By placing an ear tag with the birth date or the date of the entrance in the nursery on some of the gilts in the group, we will always know the exact age of the animals, even though they are taken to another building or we lose their identification card.
