Page 8 of articles about AI - artificial insemination

In Denmark the most common practice is to always stimulate with the boar together with a complete 5 point pattern of stimulation carried out by the inseminator.

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...

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.

The optimal fertilization of a sow depends on several factors, among them, mating in a specific moment of the oestrus.

Let us assume that the expected farrowing rate and live-born litter sizes are 90% and 12.5, respectively, but that current performance is 82% and 11.3, respectively. This means that too many sows are bred but failing to farrow and those that farrow are having fewer pigs.