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Industry Partners
Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Converting to Group Sow Housing – Decisions to Consider
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on March 27, 2014 | No Comments
Legislation, consumers, and retailers have increased pressure for producers to transition to group sow housing. Some of the considerations of the transition include whether to use existing space or expand the barn, where the financial resources will come from, which feeding system to use, what will be the space allocation per sow, how many sows per pen, what management and employee training changes are needed, and how will productivity be affected. The financial costs of transitioning will be both the capital investment, and probably a reduction in profits during and immediately after construction. The feeding and housing system will require deciding on a competitive or non-competitive feeding system. The decision will depend on costs, management strategy, and how much control over feed portion the producer would like. Most barns will require additional space or fewer sows when transitioning from stalls to group housing. If it is decided to reduce the sow herd, the lactation and finishing lengths can be extended to produce fewer, but heavier, market pigs. Barn additions will allow sow numbers to stay the same and will not disrupt production during construction, but likely is more expensive. Design specifications will involve deciding space allocations, group size, and number of pens. Management and employee training changes will have to involve the feeding system, time management, observation skills, and treatments. Production levels can be maintained in group housing, but producers should be prepared for a dip due to a potential increase in culling and an adaption period for employees and animals. Researching the various systems and planning can help the transition to group housing go smoothly and with less disruption to production.
Reproductive Problem Solving in Gilts
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Optimizing gilt reproduction involves selecting the best gilts to breed, feeding strategies in gilt development, acclimatizing the gilt into the sow herd, boar exposure, the age of breeding, the breeding strategy, maintaining body condition through gestation, and managing her first litter.
Challenges Associated with Reproductive Failure in Sows
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Reproductive performance in sows can be impeded by sub-optimal management or by disease challenges. Synchronizing estrus in a group of sows makes management easier. Weaning of sows should naturally synchronize sows, but delays or failures to return can occur due to environmental, management, or genetic variables. Some of the pharmaceutical methods to control estrus are administering PG600 on the first day after weaning, feeding Matrix® for 7 days after weaning, or Ovugel® 24 hours before inseminating. Feed intake during lactation is also a factor in returning to estrus. Four basic feed intake patterns are increasing throughout, low throughout, initially low then gradually increasing, and initially increasing then dropping off. The last three patterns have more problems returning to estrus than the first, and a rapid drop off in feed intake is often seen in primiparous sows. There are multiple diseases that can impact reproductive performance, and can cause an increase in mummies, stillborns, and/or abortions. Finally, management can affect reproductive performans. For example, a sow has discharge and a return to estrus after breeding has often been bred post-ovulation, and the uterus is susceptible to infection at this time. A combination of lactation feeding, disease control, and management strategies can reduce problems associated with reproductive performance, and pharmaceuticals can be a useful tool as well.
Feeding the Sow: Comparison of Gestational and Lactation Programs
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The reproductive performance of a sow can be affected by the feed intake of her previous lactation, which can be affected by the gestation feed intake. Lactation feed intake can be influenced by many factors including litter size, lactation length, parity, environment, feed allowance, water intake, stockmanship, and comfort. Some of the feeding strategies that exist include slowly increasing feed to a target, feeding ad libitum the entire lactation length, and self-feeding through triggering feed release. Little data exists to support one method over the others. A trial was run to try to identify the best gestation and lactation feeding strategy. The gestation diet was fed either based on BCS (conventional) or weight and backfat thickness (Kansas). Lactation feeding was ad libitum after day 3 (conventional), increasing to ad libitum over 13 days (ramp), or self-feeding (ad libitum). So far, partial data collection has been conducted, but it has not yet been analyzed. Since only preliminary data is available, no conclusions can be drawn. However, the data suggests the ramp lactation feeding may result in the highest feed intake, lowest weight loss, and highest weaning weights.
Feeding the Sow: Peri-Partum
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The feeding strategy around peri-partum is important to ensure the productivity of the sow, and the growth of her litter. Late gestation feeding generally involves supplying the sow’s increase demands, but there are various studies on whether increasing energy intake or amino acids are more important, or if feed intake in general should be increased. An alternative approach is to decrease feed in late gestation, as high feed intake during this time may decrease lactation feed intake. Generally immediately before farrowing and during farrowing a sow will not eat, but if the day she will farrow is not known she producers will usually still give the full feed amount. The sow may have a dip in feed intake during early lactation, and producers can either feed ad libitum or restricted during this time. If restrictive feeding is used, the amount of feed supplied should increase quickly over the next few days. The NCERA-219 committee conducted a study on gradually decreasing late gestation feed allowance to promote lactation feed intake. Three treatments were run: 2.0kg throughout gestation (control), 1.8 to start and then 2.7 kg after day 85 (step-up), or 1.8kg to start, 2.7kg day 75-108, and then decreased to 0.9kg (step-down). The results showed no difference in early lactation feed intake, number born alive, stillborns, percent surviving lactation, litter birth weight, or preweaning gains. The stepdown sows had a tendency to have fewer born alive for the following litter. The feeding treatment affected sow body weight, but had no effect on lactation or litter performance.
Managing Dynamic Sow Grouping System
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The introduction for Doug Ahrens workshop on group housed sow management at the London Swine Conference, 2014.
Sow Health: Impacts and Challenges
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The introduction to a London Swine Conference, 2014 workshop on sow health.
Success with Group Housing
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Housing sows in groups requires different management strategies, but can create a better work environment for stockpeople, as well as increasing sow welfare. When switching to group housing, one of the major decisions is which feeding system to install. Feeding systems can be either competitive or non-competitive. For competitive systems, smaller groups with sows of similar size and body condition score should be used, and any drop-out sows relocated to a different area. Non-competitive feeding systems can use larger, more diverse groups, and ESF systems require the sows and new gilts to be trained. Some aggression can occur in groups, especially when sows are mixed for the first time. Pen design, gilt development management, and genetics can all affect how much aggression will be shown by sows. Competitive feeding systems generally have higher aggression, so new sows should be added as a subgroup. Sows should be grouped by size and age, and first parity sows can be grouped together. If a sow is being persistently aggressive, she can be isolated. Sows often become easier to handle when housed in groups, but having stockpeople that are attentive, observant, and caring is important. Often stockpeople have a positive experience with group handling because there is an increased opportunity for positive animal interaction, and watching natural sow behaviour can be informative for understanding the animals.
Lactation Success
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Hyperprolific sows are required to produce more milk to achieve good piglet growth rate, and one of the determinants of milk yield is mammary development. Mammary development occurs during 3 months of age until puberty, the end third of gestation, and lactation. Estrogen, prolactin, and relaxin are the hormones involved for gestational development, and prolactin injections given to gilts stimulated mammary development after puberty. Restricting gilt feed at 90 days until puberty reduced mammary development, but reduced protein during that time or restricting feed from day 28-90 had no effect. Feeding genistein or 10% flaxseed increased mammary development. Gestational diets that are high-energy low-protein reduce mammary development, but high protein diets can increase milk yield. lactation diets should be high in both energy and protein for high milk yield. As well, teats that are suckled during the first lactation will produce more milk for the second, which can be used to decide how many pigs to put on primiparous sows.
Lessons Learned from PEDv
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PEDv is an emerging virus that is expected to be a persistent problem into the future, so management strategies that work should be found and followed. Canada has managed to avoid most of the impact when compared to the USA, but biosecurity should continue to be a priority for producers. Surveillance of the virus at packers, in transport trailers, and in assembly lines allows the disease spread to be followed better than just on-farm occurrences. Industry-wide cooperation helps veterinarians to understand and reduce risks. Vigilance and biosecurity remain priorities, but containment strategies and communication should start to be focused on.