Main problems with pregnant sows housed in groups (I)
The two main factors that make that certain farms have not been successful adapting to the animal welfare regulations are design and handling/management.
Page 36 of articles about management
Weaning-to-service interval: what affects it and how to control it
Which factors affect the WTSI? Among the factors with a biggest influence we have: inadequate intake during lactation, season of the year, and length of the lactation.
Use of the production planning chart to schedule the sow replacements
The goal of this trick is to create a register of the coming into heat of the gilts that can be interpreted quickly and easily, and to control the day of the beginning of the treatment with altrenogest when we wish to delay their mating/service.
Production paces: how to keep the flows of animals constant
In order to keep the population of the different kinds of animals constant, the flows of pigs must be constant. This is, we must keep the production pace of the farm.
Behavior, production results and meat quality of intact boars and gilts housed in unmixed groups: A comparative study
In the present study, possible differences in behavior, production results and meat quality between entire males and gilts, both housed in single-sex groups but with visual contact to other groups, were investigated.
Numbering of liquid feed valves with sows' ear tags
Use of sows' ear tags for identifying each of the liquid feed valves with their corresponding number.
Effect of preoperative meloxicam or tolfenamic acid administration on stress and pain induced by surgical castration in piglets
Tolfenamic acid tended to be more efficient than meloxicam both during and post-castration.
European Union: study and economic analysis of the costs and benefits of ending surgical castration of pigs
The study is aimed at providing EU policymakers with an improved understanding of which of the options is most adequate for pig meat production when weighing the costs against the benefits.
Video tour of a pork plant featuring Temple Grandin
A tour of a pork plant guided by Dr. Temple Grandin, Professor of Animal Science at Colorado State University and widely considered to be the world's leading expert on humane animal handling at meat packing plants. This video provides an honest look at how pigs are handled at pork packing plants.
Causes of the losses/cullings of the sows: a tower of Babel (II)
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.
Plaster for protecting the 'carpi' of newborn piglets
System for avoiding carpal injuries in suckling piglets.
Effect of split weaning on sow ovulatory responses to injection of gonadotrophins during lactation
More split-weaned than control sows had elevated serum progesterone 2 days post weaning (47.6% versus 9.5%).
Tag & Tell: dealing with broken needles critical for pork industry in Alberta
If you break a needle when injecting a pig of any age, tag it in the ear with the special marker.
Nurse sows (II)
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.
New section: Replacement rate simulator
We have developed a new simulator that will help us to calculate the number of gilts to be entered in a farm when its activity starts, when increasing its sow census or when calculating the replacement rate of an already working farm.
Marking the place where the Renco device must be placed
The goal is to increase the agility of the reading process of the body condition of the sows using the Renco device.