Articles - Management

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.

In this chapter the use of progesterone derivatives to modify the duration of estrus in sows is explained.

A good result in stillbirths is difficult to achieve without inducing farrowings.

The farm, with an elevated number of animals, had been experiencing for several days an increased number of births in gestation on the weekend before moving the sows to the farrowing pens. Mortality in these births was 100%.

In this chapter we will present the farrowing stages and how to control it.

Loading pigs is a task that, unfortunately, we give little importance to. We don’t usually realize that loosing something at this point is tantamount to losing a year’s worth of work, and worse yet is the economic loss.

In this chapter we will consider the benefits of closed nests and the importance of temperature regulation according to the age of the piglets.

In this chapter we will take a look at the use of heat lamps and how to distribute heat inside the pen.

In this chapter we will discuss the benefits of heating mats

The majority of newborn mamals are very sensitive to low temperatures. However, piglets are especially predisposed to loss of energy.

One could think that the number of deaths increases in the winter in the northern hemisphere because the animals freeze to death.

The milk production of sows is one of the parameters that has evolved the most over the last several decades.

In this chapter we will take a look at some other aspects of farrowing induction...

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...

It is practically impossible to inspect all the pigs individually during routine control visits.

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).

In the last chapter we examined mating guidelines that came rather close to being ideal, given that they achieve the following objectives: At least one mating should be adjusted to meet the ideal time and achieve the first objective with the least number of matings.

The ideal mating guideline should follow 2 objectives: At least one mating should be adjusted to meet the ideal time and achieve the first objective with the least number of matings.

As mentioned in the previous chapter, theoretically, the ideal mating time is around 10-12 hours before ovulation.