Articles - Management

Nothing has more impact on piglet survival that an adequate intake of colostrum.

Mating the stimulated sows eases the sperm transport to the oviduct, where they meet the ova.

This article explains how the massive use of hormones helps synchronize heats and farrowings when workload scheduling, synchronization and production rates stability are priorities.

Build a fence to keep the weaned piglets in a farrowing pen.

A strict schedule allows us to concentrate all the important events, and time periods where more attention/work is required, within the working days.

Write down events or treatments on the windows as if they were a blackboard.

Many swine production units in North America have incorporated fumigation rooms into their barn design.

Differentiating fostered younger piglets from old ones allows proper management.

Growth curves as a tool to help manage weight variability among pigs.

The goal is to record the sows' feeding level when fed manually.

This watch has three circles: the blue one represents the hours, the green one the liveborn piglets, and the red one the stillborn piglets.

The goal is to lose as little time as possible when looking for someone on the farm.

Improve the piglets' comfort in the fattening rooms without compromising ventilation by placing an insulating material over the pens.

Wrap the sow's card in a transparent plastic bag and write down on it the information with a thick marker.

20 years ago we inseminated gilts when too small, then we inseminated them when too heavy, and now we are returning to an intermediate weight.

The strategy involves synchronizing the gilts so they come into heat at the same time, in order to properly manage the number of inseminations targeted for each lot.

Thanks to the combination of a decrease in the number of stillborn and an almost 30% decrease of preweaning mortality (down to 10.2%), the ultimate goal is finally achieved: to wean an additional piglet per sow.

As you probably know, the name pig333 web comes from the length of the sow's gestation, which is "3 months, 3 weeks and 3 days". This paper proposes the necessity to review the length of gestation on our farm.

A simple system that uses plastic and adhesive tape to prevent the entry of unfiltered air into a barn can also serve as a safe method to prevent inappropriate non-biosecure personnel movement.

Wrap the ultrasound scanner in cling film to improve the biosecurity measures

The installation of physical barriers at strategic personnel entry points help to define distinct biosecurity areas. This method is commonly used in farms that lack a clear separation between areas with different biosecurity levels.

The goal is to know the production stage of gestating sows in a quick and visual way.

The use of plastic and gravel to prevent the growth of vegetation around the perimeter of the barn. This is a simple strategy that will also decrease the chances for rodents to enter the facilities and it will help improve external barn biosecurity.

The most productive farms are not always the best. We must also bear in mind the weaned piglet's weight and the sow's feed intake.