articles about performance in Articles

When foetuses develop in a heat-stressed gestation sow, a condition known as in utero heat stress occurs, and piglets may be born smaller with impaired gut microbiome and immune function. Additionally, these piglets show greater susceptibility to stress later in life. Although these consequences are not always immediately apparent, they are important to manage and prevent.

If we want greater economic resilience in the face of hard times, our focus should shift from cutting costs to outproducing the challenges ahead.

Pigs are particularly vulnerable to heat stress due to their limited ability to dissipate body heat and genetic selection for higher productivity, which has reduced their heat tolerance. Improved technical results increase heat production, and today's lines produce 30% more heat than those in the 1980s.

We are sharing an example of a sow card used to record basic breeding sow data, which is essential on all farms regardless of their size.

A good start in post-weaning feed intake and including creep feed and palatable diets is crucial to optimize piglet health and performance.

How do ambient temperatures below thermoneutrality affect pig performance and environmental efficiency?

The trends of the swine industry in China should be explained in two parts: pork consumption and pig production.

All livestock sectors are seeking to reduce imports of raw protein materials. Insect meals belong to the category of concentrated protein sources, but their nutritional characteristics are poorly documented and attempts to incorporate them into swine feed have been the subject of few publications.

From their respective academic and on-farm perspectives, Josep Gasa and Josep Casanovas comment on a recent study about the effect of postweaning feed intake.

We propose a more direct indicator to look at and analyze reproductive problems on the farm.

The evolution of multi-site pig production over the last 25 years has not held true to its original intent.

Where would you begin to develop new and valuable information about your farm’s profitability (or lack thereof) that you are not monitoring now? Certainly, one of the most important ones is to visualize your data in a new way.

From their respective academic and on-farm perspectives, Josep Gasa and Josep Casanovas comment on a recent study regarding the effect of heat stress on sows: Which weeks does it affect the farrowing rate the most? What about the weaning-to-first-service interval? Are there differences depending on parity?

To have good gilt performance, producers and vets must value those gilts and invest accordingly. Dr. Clayton Johnson from Carthage Veterinary Services shares some tips about gilt productive development.

When productivity decreases, but productive efficiency is maintained...