Page 21 of articles about management in Articles

The pig’s reproductive cycle lasts for 20 weeks, with weaning at 21 days: 16,5 gestation period + 3 lactating + average time on heat. Supposing that the sows wean 10 piglets, we can then come to the following conclusion: it takes two weeks to produce a piglet.

Man is possibly the only animal capable of living in practically all places in the world, regardless of the climate. This is due to his capacity to construct buildings to isolate himself from the climate however extreme it may be, maintaining an environment which allows him to survive. As domestic animals live together with man, they have to take advantage indirectly of this capacity.

To many pig producers cleaning and disinfection is a chore they view as an expensive tedious burden.

In previous chapters we have looked at the importance of maintaining the ideal parity profile within each batch.

The administration of local or general anesthesia, accompanied in all cases by a long-lasting analgesic, eliminates or considerably reduces the pain caused by surgical castration. However, the use of these products has certain limitations.

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.

Immunological castration also reduces sexual behavior and aggressiveness during the final weeks of fattening, in this way increasing the time dedicated to the ingestion of food

This month we are setting you a new test, in this case on the welfare of sows accommodated in stalls during gestation.

We have already seen that in order to achieve a correct parity structure and homogeneity of the production batches, it is necessary to control the number of replacement gilts entering the herd.

Anecdotal evidence from pig producers and veterinarians in the field suggests that there are genotype differences in susceptibility to PCVAD

Injecting prostaglandin F2α (PGF) or its analogues is effective for induction of farrowing, although a large range in the interval between treatment and farrowing is usual. Experience has shown that only 50% to 60% of PGF-treated sows farrow during the working day after injection and only these sows are candidates for farrowing supervision.

Until now we have spoken about the general parity structure of the herd, but in an ideal situation this optimum distribution should be put into practice in each of the productive batches of sows.

One of the main goals for a sow herd is to achieve a correct homogeneity of the productive batches.

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

The Danish pig producers’ research organisation has tested a number of different designs. They recommend pen dimensions of 2.7x1.8 m to accommodate modern prolific breeds.

In the first part of management of the breeding chart we basically looked at how it can help us to control returns. In this second part we will look at other applications.