Management

Meeting the needs of the newly weaned pigs often proves to be difficult in many production settings.

The aim of this trick is the improvement of the quality of the environment in the farrowing quarters for the sows as well as for the piglets, saving on energy consumption by means of the manufacturing of nests.

This is how to assemble an "emergency" ramp using the insulation panels left over from the construction of the nursery.

In order to carry out this economic analysis we have kept in mind the variables between the two types of weaning in the different phases: site 1 (reproductive sows), site 2 (weaning), and site 3 (fattening).

How should you decide if your current routines on colostrum are working? How much intake is enough?

To conclude this series of articles, swine reproduction and artificial insemination specialist Javier Gil explains the importance of proper post-service management in terms of when to move sows and how to feed them.

In swine, dystocia is usually caused by oversized piglets (or by a narrow birth canal) instead of foetal positioning problems.

Piglets are born with very limited energy reserves: compared to other newborn mammals, they have much less energy stored per kg liveweight.

We hold the legs of the piglets together with plastic straps, avoiding that they move apart from each other.

Preventing the entry and spread of diseases should be an objective on any swine farm, so adequately designing biosecurity aspects is key. In this article, we continue to discuss biosecurity measures with two experts: Lara Ruiz and José Casanovas.

A correct supervision is one of the key points of a farrowing.

For the animals to be comfortable it is important to know their needs. The more needs that we can fulfill the more productive the animal will be.

Here are three basic rules for deciding if and when to do cross fostering and use nurse sows.

To ensure that each piglet intakes enough colostrum and to help the smallest piglets get it, split suckling should be used.

The goal is to make the management during the gestation easier using a different colour spray colour each week to mark the tasks carried out with the sows.

In the first part of this article series we addressed how to correctly stimulate oestrus. In this article we continue talking with swine reproduction specialist, Javier Gil Pascual, focusing on heat detection.

With this article we begin the publication of a series of three unpublished articles by José Barceló for pig333.com on the age at weaning. José gave us the articles a few days before his death. As a way of paying homage to him we have decided to publish them posthumously without any alterations.