Page 2 of articles about productivity

From their respective academic and on-farm perspectives, Josep Gasa and Josep Casanovas comment on a recent study regarding the effect of heat stress on sows: Which weeks does it affect the farrowing rate the most? What about the weaning-to-first-service interval? Are there differences depending on parity?

It is not only related to NPDs, but it can also have a greater impact than we first thought.

When productivity decreases, but productive efficiency is maintained...

How do we get good workers? What must we do to keep them? And, mostly, what do I want on my farm and which workers do I need for that?

Thanks to the combination of a decrease in the number of stillborn and an almost 30% decrease of preweaning mortality (down to 10.2%), the ultimate goal is finally achieved: to wean an additional piglet per sow.

We hear a lot of talk about optimizing profitability in grow-finish through reducing standard deviation of marketed weights and aiming that tighter weight group at the profit optimal average weight at the time of marketing. It’s a bit like playing darts, you want the darts to be in tight group but it is also necessary to be near the bull’s eye on the target.

Let us see the case of a farm with 5 non-productive days more than the average of the farms with the same profile. Where are these days lost?

The piglets born to primiparous sows show a worse performance during the nursery stage and a twofold risk of dying than the piglets born to multiparous sows.