Articles - Management

We are going to save money in heating during the weaners stage guaranteeing the thermal comfort of the piglets by creating two environments in the weaners stage defining an area for the nest and an outside area.

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.

Apple juice is the favourite kind of juice for the sows during the training sessions.

Locomotor problems are serious, multi-factorial problems that aren’t well registered on farms, but for the most part are correctable.

Can we get to know if the behaviour, from the sanitary point of view, of a certain batch of animals during their growth stage is being correct? How can we achieve this?

To keep the piglets clean and to ensure their wellbeing during the carrying out of different handling procedures or the relocation of animals.

When the farrowings are programmed, their supervision has to be one of the main tasks in the farrowing quarters. The rest of the tasks must be organized in such a way that we can exert the maximum control over the programmed sows.

Short weaning to service interval isn’t always a synonym for good management, since we have to take into consideration not only average number of days, but also the effect on the percentage of distribution after returns.

The aim of this trick is to identify quickly and practically, the age of piglets and pigs just by looking at the color of their ear tag.

It would be so nice if the sows could warn us when there are problems when they are giving birth to their piglets during labour! This seems impossible… Or maybe it is not so.

The goal is that the sows always have access to a good amount of fresh drinking water in the farrowing quarters.

In the previous chapter we saw how level litters by size. Now we will see how to do it by number.

In the previous chapter we discussed the ideal time to level out litters of newborn piglets. Here's how to do it.

With the high prolificacy of sows nowadays, leveling out litters is one of the most hands-on jobs on the farms of today. It is one of the first steps to start lactation successfully.

We have seen the importance of obtaining a sufficient dose of quality colostrum to generate the newborn’s defenses as well as the conflict that this can suppose when we level the litters after birth. Now lets take a look at the importance of rapidly obtaining colostrum and milk to ensure energy supply and minimize temperature loss.

The ingestion of Ig in sufficient quantity is the first priority. So much so that it even comes before the factor that seems most important: the feed supply.

What if we were to wean on Friday and were able to block farrowings for 2 days? The bulk of farrowings would be concentrated on Monday.

Production manuals and legislation often give recommendations as to the minimum space requirements for each type of animal. There are many sources where we can find information about the minimum requirements to ensure animal comfort. But, what is the optimal number of animals to put in a pen? Is there a magic number? There is not as much documentation on this topic.

Long farrowings increase mortality, and deaths occur above all in the last 1/3 of the delivery.

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

When gilts were mated at a little more than 100 kg, productivity at 2nd parity had a huge decline and the sow was never able to reach their maximum potential.

In the last chapter on hormone management we looked at the advantages of “a la carte” altrenogest treatment as opposed to the 18 day treatment used to synchronize gilts.

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?

It is not possible to compare the consumption of antimicrobials in Denmark with very many other countries, because almost none have a detailed registration on their use of antibiotics for the treatment of livestock. However, among those who collect such data, Denmark has one of the lowest levels of veterinary antibiotic use.