Page 5 of articles about weaning in Articles

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.

As mentioned in the first chapter of planning weaning, after deciding which sows are going to be weaned, on weaning day we must take into account several factors...

The current test is about weaning in sheds, with curtain separators in the nest.

Deciding which sows are going to be weaned on weaning day is an important task that should be examined well.

Another convenient option for controlling the replacement entry is to incorporate the information on the breeding chart.

The new test on animal welfare in swine herds will demonstrate your knowledge on the welfare of weaned piglets.

In the last chapter we looked at the importance of achieving homogenous farrowing batches (age distribution + nº sows). In this chapter we will begin to see how to achieve this.

The new test in the welfare section is dedicated to conditions during weaning.

When external administration of the hormonal product is stopped, the levels of progesterone fall.

In order to apply the most suitable feeding regime to newly weaned pigs it is important to balance the trade off between the detrimental effect on performance of feeding levels of protein that are too low to allow maximal growth and those which increase the risk of post weaning diarrhoea.

Without a doubt weaning is the most stressful process suffered by a pig, or at least it is up until that moment in its life.

The decrease in the contact time between the mother and her piglets, due to the common practice of early weaning, has led to the appearance of some piglets that are not completely colonised or that have not acquired a sufficient level of maternal antibodies. On mixing with other litters, these piglets are faced with distinct strains while lacking the necessary antibodies against the disease.

In order to carry out this economic analysis we have kept in mind the variables between the two types of weaning in the different phases: site 1 (reproductive sows), site 2 (weaning), and site 3 (fattening).

The consequences of the inflammatory and immune responses on tryptophan metabolism could impair the availability of tryptophan for body protein accretion, growth and all other metabolic processes involving this amino acid.