Page 11 of articles about sow in Articles

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?

This system does not provide an improvement in the production data, but a saving in energy costs and a better use of the resources in general.

The results reveal that the stress that the sows due to excessive interventions around the moment of the farrowing causes a clear increase in the pre-weaning mortality.

It is very important that all the staff on the farm can know quickly what is going on in the farrowing quarters, because in this way everybody will be able to carry out the daily duties in this area.

Different systems allow the sows to eat several times a day. In some of them we are the ones who decide, in other ones it is the sows.

We saw aggressiveness in the sows, and we suspected that it could have been caused by the handling around the moment of the farrowing. We decided to register and analyze the data relative to the handling in order to confirm our suspicions.

The procedure is simple, quick and well tolerated by the recipient sows.

The use of two different feeds for the sows in the farrowing quarters is not always easy at a logistical level.

The weaning-to-service interval is a short but vital period regarding the productivity of the sow.

PCV2 vaccination of the gilts prior to insemination with PCV2 spiked-semen showed a clear decrease of viral load in the gilts as well as a much lower viral excretion that were compatible with foetus protection.

In a system with 2.35 farrowings/sow/year, more than 14 piglets born per farrowing, more than 11 weaned piglets/farrowing and around 1% of losses at weaning; what can we do to improve this?

The farrowing interval is one of the production parameters more commonly used as an indicator of the production efficiency of a farm.

Knowing how to make the most of space in our farrowing rooms is a key point, not only when using foster sows, but also for increasing the age at weaning. The farrowing pen is the most expensive pen at the farm, and we must obtain the maximum possible efficiency out of it.

This article suggests some solutions to the main problems encountered in pregnancies with group housing.

None of the employees on this farm had ever seen TGEv before, but were concerned that is what they were seeing.