Page 8 of articles about sow in Articles

Sows with more than 16 piglets Total Born (TB) per litter have twice as many stillbirths (SB) as those with 13 to 16 TB litters, and three times more SB than sows farrowing litters smaller than 13 TB.

It is easy to see the reaction of the sows (of all of them!) when we supply them with paper. A handful in front of their snout or at the reach of their mouth is enough... oxytocin! It is like giving an injection!

The farm reports a problem of low prolificacy (mean annual live births of 11.91) and low fertility in summer, with a marked increase in acyclic returns.

We recommend that producers pay more attention to gilts and sows that are at risk of increasing NPD. Situations of increased risk are described.

This second part deals with the problems caused by not  recording properly the cause of abortions, sows and piglets deaths, nurse sows and hormonal treatments.

This first part deals with backward and impossible data, i.e. the sows that are no longer in the farm but still appear both in the management softwatre and the 100% delivery rates in gilts.

Exposure during acclimatization can be considered the first dose of a vaccine, and pre-farrowing exposure its booster.

The shorter and lower dose regime saves money but there is an increased risk of follicular cyst development, which may occur at doses below 13mg/day.

Milk supplementation shows much higher growth rates in the fattening stage, so its implementation would be interesting to regain body condition in animals with low birth weight.

Assessment of a study, by Enric de Marco, on the use of anti-inflammatory drugs in sows at farrowing in order to reduce piglet mortality and increase the weight of piglets at weaning.

The handling disadvantages derived from the addition of an extra feed are outweighed by the improvement in production and decrease in the number of farrowing problems.

The number of sows that suffer some kind of leg injury is much higher than is apparent, and even more so in second farrowings.

The article provides an alternative to the current vaccination programs that could be the solution for farms with early onset oedema disease. However, this alternative —consisting of vaccinating the dams at the end of gestation to achieve post-weaning piglets immunization—, also raises questions...

Energy intake based on body condition differs greatly from the energy adult sows require. Moreover, the NRC clearly overestimates the sows' maintenance requirements.

Meeting batch breeding targets requires availability of enough service-ready weaned sows and gilts.

If we decide to use foster sows to wean the "extra" piglets farrowed by hyper-prolific sows, we must decide which system is best suited to our farm and our management conditions.