Farmer Focus: Weaning day tweaked with fingers crossed
Rob McGregor © Tim Scrivener It has become apparent in recent months that the livestock industry’s favourite abbreviation, AI, has been hijacked.
Just about every news bulletin I hear contains a reference to AI, but now it means “artificial intelligence”.
I have no strong objection to The Beatles miraculously releasing a new single in 2023, but for me, the letters AI will always mean “artificial insemination”.
After all, I’ve spent more than four decades crafting and practising my skills in livestock AI, always adjusting to changing techniques and moving with the trends as they come along.
See also: 5 causes of pig infertility and how to avoid them
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Using packaged semen to inseminate sows on outdoor units is now common practice, and it brings with it a whole range of benefits, including herd performance, animal welfare and, ultimately, a great-quality product.
One boar at stud is worth 30 or more on farm, and those elite males should not tackle the rigours of a cold, windswept north Norfolk field – or a field anywhere else for that matter.
But the genetic potential they supply means we can produce lots of piglets with a great potential to grow well and butcher efficiently to the retailer’s specification.
In recent months, I’ve been hearing of outdoor units that, like us, have increased their weaning age to 35 days from 28.
They are now rebreeding their sows on a four-day, weaning-to-service interval – not five, which has previously been the preferred timing for most.
Personally, I have been quite happy carrying on as we have, weaning on Wednesday and starting insemination on Monday.
I would agree that there is activity in the paddocks on Sunday, but the sows still showed strong signs of oestrus on Tuesday, when we put them through the AI tent one last time.
However, when our ever-enthusiastic link to the outside world (fieldsman Gordon) told me that every herd above us in the league table now serves a day earlier than us, I suddenly changed my stance.
The other week we shifted weaning day to Thursday with high hopes.
The other option was to start AI on Sunday, but with current staff recruitment and retention challenges, that would have been foolish – unless the technology experts are further down the road with new versions of AI. But I doubt that just yet.