Page 40 of articles about management

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.

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?

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.

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