Making good gilts pay well
Making good gilts pay well
By Marianne Curtis
LARGE gilts, careful attention at service and synchronised farrowing are some of the factors involved in achieving 28.2 pigs reared/sow/year on one Notts unit.
Since J C Lister Farms acquired Top Farm, Morton Grange, Babworth, in 1991, sow reproductive performance has improved and remained consistently high, averaging 28.2 pigs reared/sow/year from 2.48 litters over the last three years.
Manager of the 570-sow herd, David Wedgewood, believes gilt management is crucial to guarantee future reproductive performance. "Gilts must be in good condition at service. Camborough 15s are introduced to the herd in groups of 10 at 80kg and fed ad lib dry sow ration.
"Gilts are served at 240 days, meaning they are slightly bigger than on many units. But they are expected to rear high numbers of pigs." The herd average number of pigs born alive/litter is 12.3 and the unit doesnt suffer from second litter number drops.
"Serving bigger gilts means they wont lose much condition at farrowing and will be in good condition at their second farrowing, ensuring numbers born remain high," says Mr Wedgewood.
Keeping gilts in the same group from when they are introduced to the herd until farrowing, coupled with human contact reduces stress, possibly helping fertility. Sows remain in the same groups of four and are allocated according to size and condition to avoid bullying.
"Sows and gilts are walked through every day and are placid. Gilts are taken individually to boars: Because they have regular human contact, moving them for service is less of a shock," he says.
Service is mainly natural but he believes AI provides a good management tool. "All services are supervised and when we are not 100% happy with a service, we AI sows that night. AI is also useful for lame sows which find it difficult to take the boar.
"All sows are run two at a time with boars each Sunday – a day before they are due to take the boar. Usually two or three of the 27 sows served each week are on heat, so through trying them a day early we reduce empty days."
Two of the units six staff supervise services which helps avoid sows riding each other for prolonged periods which can lead to some rejecting boars, he explains.
Most sows are served three times with two natural services and one AI. "Putting time into getting service right is crucial to the units breeding performance."
After service, sows stay in service accommodation for five weeks so that if there are any returns they are close to boars. "We dont pregnancy test as it is time consuming and sows are difficult to keep still. Sows are checked for returns when they are fed and farrowing rate is 90% so this seems to work well."
Sows are fed 2.5 kg a day of a 13.4 digestible energy, 14% crude protein diet until farrowing when they move on to a 13.9 DE, 18% protein ration. Piglets are weaned at 21 days but Mr Wedgewood would like to wean when they are slightly older.
"We are cutting sow numbers which will free more space for farrowing, meaning piglets can be weaned at four-weeks-old. This will reduce days to slaughter because the larger the animal at weaning, the faster it grows."
Currently, piglets weigh 6.2-6.4kg at weaning and average 158 days from birth to slaughter at 97.7kg. Mortality is low at 7.22%, which Mr Wedgewood attributes to careful management at farrowing.
"Farrowing is synchronised and takes place on Thursdays and Fridays. We dedicate one member of staff to supervise farrowing. When piglets are born they are sized and a considerable amount of fostering is done sooner rather than later, which helps minimise mortality.
"We also make sure all pigs receive colostrum and smaller pigs are reared together on sows with small teats to make suckling easier for them. Creep feed is introduced at 10-days-old."
From weaning to slaughter, pig growth rates average 665g a day and total feed cost/kg of gain is 30p. But Mr Wedgewood is keen to further improve finisher performance.
"We consistently achieve high breeding performance so the challenge is to improve the finishing side. We have recently switched from PIC 250 boars to PIC 402s which should improve conformation and increase killing out by 1%."
Most finishing is done on contract and 300 finishers a week are sold to two outlets on two contracts; P2 12mm and P2 14mm.
But 500 fewer pigs will be finished on contract when sow numbers are reduced to 500. This will save on rent and salaries, as staff numbers will have fallen from seven to five by spring. *
Sows at Top Farm have consistently averaged 28.2 pigs reared a year from 2.48 litters over the last three years says herd manager David Wedgewood.
Pigs/sow/year 28.27
Litters/sow/year 2.48
Pigs born alive/sow/litter 12.28
Mortality 7.22%
Days to slaughter 158
Growth rate 665g/day
Feed cost 30p/kg
Net price 70p/kg