Page 4 of articles about weaning in Articles

There was a sudden increase in mortality in a site 2 farm with the loss of the "biggest piglets" in the group.No particular symptomatology was seen but every day some dead piglets were found.

The performance decrease suffered by the piglets when weaned is one of the most worrying factors at the pig farms.

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.

The desired result of the strategic management of replacement gilts at a company level is to minimize the economical losses potentially caused by PRRS.

Bitterness leaves an unpleasant feeling linked to a decrease in feed consumption. On the other hand, modulating feed intake with bitter compounds might be an interesting tool to limit excessive voracity of pigs and sows at certain stages.

The losses due to diarrhoea problems appear concentrated, basically, during the first week in the weaners stage, whilst in the farms that have not suffered diarrhoea problems, the mortality is distibuted more evenly.

The pig farm management team in charge of the post-weaned piglet nursery areas on these wean-to-finish sites has found serious problems with diarrhoea in recent batches of piglets arriving from the breeding farms.

The dispersion of matings described in the previous article is even more drastic on farms operating in bands over one week.

Wouldn’t it be great if all the sows on a farm (weaned sows, gilts, repeat breeders…) could be mated on the same day?! And if we were able to choose, on Mondays?

This may be a good option when farrowings and litter control during the first days are the priority.

On small farms it is better to group tasks on specific days, leaving other days with less tasks in order to organize days off...

In the last decades the degree of technification and evolution of the productive systems at all levels has been constant.

On large farms, it is common to wean more than once per week. This way, tasks can be homogenized throughout the week: each day will have a similar volume of work as the previous day.

A large part of the work on a swine farm can be divided into 3 key tasks: weaning, mating and farrowing. The day chosen for weaning determines the other two tasks; first, the matings, and then, as a consequence, the farrowings (the 2 ‘great events’ of which productivity of a farm depends on).

Without adding more space, the only way to accommodate an increase in weaning age is to decrease the breeding herd inventory.

As we discovered in the last chapter, there are no “traditional” BM systems lasting over one week that allow for weaning at 28 days with a 5-week rotation time. However, breaking with the theoretical norms, we can wean at 28 days when working with batches every 5 weeks.