What are the Benefits of sow body size at farrowing?

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments

Canadian gilt development standards are well known as having first breeding at 130 to 150 kg of bodyweight at a minimum 210 days of age. Henrik Jensen from Denmark has a different protocol that yields him 30 pigs/sow/year. Part of this protocol has him breeding at 160 kg or more at 270 days or older. For every 10 day increase in age at first conception, there is a result of 0.1 more pigs per litter. There can also be increases in first, second, and older parity sows litters as age of first conception increases. Fewer sows are removed from the herd due to poor farrowing performance or from becoming too large, and there were less repeat breeders. A heavier first litter sow at farrowing is better protected against lower milk production, slower litter growth, and poor subsequent reproductive performance. Some of the drawbacks include producing and weaning few pigs in their lifetime, being removed from the herd sooner, more non-productive days, and the fact that it is not very economical overall to breed this late. It is calculated that a day of 210 to 240 days is efficient. After some research, it is found that 130 to 150 kg and 210 to 240 days of first breeding is adequate. It varies from farm to farm however, so a farm must assess their options carefully before choosing to adopt new protocol.

Consumers’ View of Pork Production

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The hog industry has been confronted with several issues with respect to public impressions of the industry. In Canadian agriculture in general, hog production is less positively perceived. Attitudes towards this have been slowly improving since 2002. Environmental issues mentioned by consumers include waste/manure management, air pollution/odour, and water issues. Pork has a very positive reputation for safety among Canadian consumers and it is continuing to increase. About 70% of consumers feel that pigs are treated very or somewhat well. Most feel that small farms treat animals better than large farms. Knowledge of pig farming is very low, and interest seems to be declining. It doesn’t help that media is one of the major sources of information about pig production.

Assessment of the management practices facilitating the establishment and spread of exotic diseases of pigs in the Sydney region

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Drinking Patterns of Nursery Pigs – Implications For Water Vaccination

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Understanding swine drinking patterns is very important when administering vaccines via the drinking water. Enterisol® Ileitis is a Lawsonia intracellularis vaccine delivered via drinking water to protect against ileitis. The objectives of this study was to determine how long it took for 100% of nursery pigs to visit the drinker when observations began at 7, 8, 9 or 10 am over three consecutive days • Behavioral data was collected from 700 – 1800 nursery pigs by visually recording with a camera placed above the drinkers and ID’s on the pigs backs. 66 hours of data was collected with a stopwatch measuring the duration of drinking bouts and recorded every time a pigs’ head was over / in the bowl. The results conclude that within 6 hours on all three days 100% of the pigs had drank from the bowl and it is critical for producers to administer Enterisol® Ileitis for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours. In a follow up study the objectives were to validate the pilot study findings with a larger study and to evaluate the distribution and duration of drinking bouts. It was concluded that the results are consistent with the previous pilot study; insufficient vaccination time could result in incomplete population immunization and it is recommended to administer the drinking water vaccines for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours.

Genetic approaches to the improvement of fertility traits in the pig

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Economic Effects of Animal Diseases Linked to Trade Dependency

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Global levels of meat trade have not declined despite the last decade’s high-profile bans on meat trade flows.
The economic effects of disease-related trade bans on an individual country depend on the size of its livestock trade relative to domestic consumption. The most severe impacts have been felt in a few export-dependent markets and in those importdependent markets where substitutes for banned trade
were not found.
The economic significance of animal disease outbreaks is also influenced by consumer response: Fears that the disease can spread to humans can lead to sharp drops in consumption.

Matching The Biology And Management Of Contemporary Weaned Sows

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North America has been unable to capture the true production potential of superior dam-lines. This can be attributed to public environment concerns and welfare issues. Environmental monitoring processes, more environmentally sound methods of production, and welfare practices are going to offset the cost of production. Producers also need to find the correct balance between pig quality and number of weaned pigs in order to break the myth that simply more weaned is better. There is a “push” concept of breeding herd management, where a constant influx of quality gilts stabilizes the parity structure of the breeding herd. The ultimate goal of the hyper-prolific sow is to obtain quality litters with low variability. Genetic improvement has predicted an extra half a pig per litter per year, which has not been realized as of yet. There are two probably reasons: 1) Lack of appropriate management of dam-line females (rather than improving reproductive performance to make up for any economic loss, producers will tend to increase throughput in the finisher stage as a simpler fix); and 2) Changes in lean tissue growth rates in dam-line females (terminal pigs are getting increased lean growth, and this trend is present to at least some degree in replacement gilts). The problem with this is that it may have an effect on the onset of the sexual maturation. Weaning-to-estrus interval has always been a problem in production systems. Feed restriction at any time during lactation can increase this time, as can inadequate suckling. This same restriction in feed can lead to a significant reduction in ovulation rate and a reduction in embryo survival and development for the subsequent breeding. Collectively, these lactation management follies can compromise even these hyper-prolific dams.

Integration from Breeding to Feeding to Eating – A Producer Owned Cooperative

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In 2001, Southwestern Ontario created a producer owned hog processing operation. The idea began with the trade disruption and countervailing duty on Canadian hogs in the 1980s. In 1995 the co-op purchased a former vegetable processing plant with the intent of converting it into a processing plant. The hog price crash in 1998 pushed for the full development of the business plan. They purchased Conestoga Meat Packers Ltd. in the fall of 2001 and 172 farmers chose to become members of the new plant with total annual shipments of 650,000 hogs. Some of the challenges this plant faced were expansion of hog capacity, the premium/discount program for maintaining quality, and the communication program for rapid, consistent, and actionable flow of information and feedback to members. To date, the PPP/Conestoga operation is still working out the kinks in getting it to full production and optimal efficiency. A new payment structure has been implemented. In the future, they are planning to continue to improve its long-term prospects.

Porcine Field Fertility with Two Different Insemination Doses and the Effect of Sperm Morphology

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In swine artificial insemination, several dose regimens are applied, ranging from 1.5 · 109 to 6.0 · 109 spermatozoa per intra-cervical insemination dose. A lower sperm dose is more profitable for artificial insemination centres and offers a more effective use of superior boars. To evaluate fertility, 50 boars were used for a total of 10 773 homospermic first inseminations at a dose of 2 billion spermatozoa. In addition, 96 boars were used at a dose of 3 billion spermatozoa for 34 789
homospermic first inseminations. Fertility was determined by a 60-day non-return rate (NR%) of first inseminations. Litter size was registered by total number of piglets born separately in primiparous and multiparous farrowings. On average, a sow was inseminated 1.5 times. A significant decrease was observed in all three fertility parameters (NR%, litter size of both primiparous and multiparous farrowings) with a dose of 2 billion spermatozoa compared with a dose of 3 billion spermatozoa. The NR% was 75.8% and 84.0% (p < 0.001), the mean litter size of primiparous farrowings 10.1 and 10.7 (p < 0.001) and the mean litter size of multiparous farrowings 11.7 and 12.1 (p < 0.001) for 2 and 3 billion spermatozoa/ dose, respectively. The proportion of normal spermatozoa in the sperm morphology analysis correlated significantly with NR% in both insemination regimens: p < 0.001, r ¼ 0.604 and p < 0.05, r ¼ 0.223 for 2 and 3 billion spermatozoa/dose, respectively. These results confirm that quantity can at least partly compensate for poor sperm quality. When the boars with <70% normal spermatozoa in the morphology evaluation were excluded from the data there were no correlation between the sperm morphology and NR%. However, the difference between the NR% and litter size remained statistically significant (p < 0.001) in favour for the bigger insemination dose. In conclusion, a decrease in sperm dose from 3 to 2 billion spermatozoa on commercial farms will severely decrease prolificacy at least under field conditions, where a sow is inseminated an average of 1.5 times/heat, and the semen is typically used within 3 days after collection. We recommend that under commercial circumstances the homospermic semen doses contain no <3 billion spermatozoa/dose.

Forecaddies of the Future

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Factors supporting high hog prices are BSE, Avian Flu scares; increase demand for pork especially in other countries; relative strength of the dollar against other currencies makes US pork less expensive in other countries; US meat industry is increasing skill at meeting other country demand attributes; and growth and income boom in China and India creating increased demand for food. Other factors that support high hog prices are difficulty permitting sites limits expansion; building materials are undergoing increased demand pressure due to re-investment; repairing damage and demand from China, India and other rapidly growing economies; sudden demand for buildings has driven prices up along with materials costs; packers are expanding to meet market demand; companies will compete with each other and will create negotiating power up chain; and finally, higher input costs, such as corn, may eventually structurally raise hog prices but not profits. However, these trends will evolve. China and India will have a business cycle (inflation, recession and then diminished demand); China will take Asia down with it as it goes, this will put heavy downward pressure on commodity prices such as oil, steel, lumber, concrete and feed grains; and China will have to become environmentally responsible. Also, oil prices could easily be cut close to half under the right plausible scenarios; lower oil prices will impact ethanol demand and price packer chain space will not remain plentiful; without factors which sustain high meat demand remaining in place PRRS and circo virus will become more and more manageable, raising “productivity gains”. Rising emphasis on animal welfare demands create audits and refocusing will continue on husbandry and individual animal observation and treatment demand for pork in the US will fall as aging boomers consume far less meat. Government regulation and up chain demands related to traceability, bio terrorism controls, and site ID will gradually become a reality though sometimes appearing stalled. Family meals and home-cooking will gradually rise, partially reversing the 30 year trend. The largest niche markets for food of all kinds will be for flavor-restored attributes and perceived safety. However, in the end the consumer will always win and everyone down-chain will be under pressure to do it better and less expensively.