Page 13 of articles about sow in Articles

The goal is to increase the agility of the reading process of the body condition of the sows using the Renco device.

The goal is to make the management during the gestation easier using a different colour spray colour each week to mark the tasks carried out with the sows.

The litter size of the recent and the last farrowing batches was significantly reduced, and the suckling pigs showed an obvious varying weight, condition and viability.

As of the 3rd-4th day of lactation it is not recommendable anymore to replace small piglets and piglets with poor a growth rate for good piglets, because it is probable that the teat that has to be used has already dried off due to the scarce stimulation received for several consecutive days.

In many occasions, the location of the heat lamp very near to the head of the sow can bother her.

In previous articles we have talked about the importance of a good sow replacement, and we have explained methods to calculate an adequate sow replacement rate. In this article we are going to show an example of a bad replacement policy and its consequences throughout time on the productivity of the farm.

When there are not enough teats, the strongest piglet always occupies the place of the weak one, that is left without milk to suckle.

Normally, when we ask a farmer which is their average number of weaned piglets per sow they normally know this parameter, because its calculation is easy, nevertheless...

The aim of this trick is the improvement of the quality of the environment in the farrowing quarters for the sows as well as for the piglets, saving on energy consumption by means of the manufacturing of nests.

It is a widely documented fact that pig production has seasonal variations mainly focused on a descent in the reproductive efficiency in the gestation phase (difficulty in the coming into oestrus, a higher number of reproductive failures) during the summer and autumn months.

To accurately predict sow body weight by using their flank to flank measurement in order to determine daily feed intake or accurate medication dose.

In the previous piece of advice we saw that in small farms it could be interesting to maintain a certain order when entering the sows in the farrowing quarters depending on their parturition. Nevertheless, in big farms or in farms that group together many farrowings at the same time we will have to think about the order in another way, because if the farrowing quarters are not very big we will have the same batch of sows housed in several rooms.

Perinatal flavour learning has been shown in a wide variety of species including humans, and often results in a preference in the offspring for a flavour that the mother ate often during late gestation and lactation.

It was developed in USA as a way to improve communication of what needed to be done to improve the chances of success in stabilizing and managing breeding herds.

We are going to see a practical example of how to even out litters after the farrowings in a quick way and minimizing the swappings of piglets.

In this second article we are going to analyze the causes of these locomotive system disorders and the treatments to avoid them or to minimize their effects.