Progress a year on
Progress a year on
A YEAR has passed since we decided to close the breeding herd to the outside replacement of gilts and boars, writes Jasper Renold. In fact, we have just served the 140th slaughter generation gilts as temporary replacements until the new gilts are ready in January.
The slaughter gilts have so far yielded 10 piglets born alive per litter which is nearly one and a half fewer than the C15 gilts. That partly explains the drop in average litter size to 11.1 piglets born alive for the past six months compared with 12.28 for the same period last year.
The other reason is that we have held back on culling some sows of all ages. Unfortunately, that has not helped pre-weaning mortality which is up from 11.8% to 13.3% for the same period.
The good news is that the rearing and feeding herds are growing well at a total of 673g/day for the past six months, well above top third Signet figures. However, feed prices have risen by £15/t so that the cost/kg liveweight gain has increased by 5p/kg. The fewer pigs finished has enabled carcass weight to increase to 73.7kg for the past six months compared with 71.8 for the same period last year.
During the same period, we are pleased to report that grading has improved from an average P2 of 11.36mm down to 11.26mm. *
SIGNET SIGNET
Current year Previous year Top Third Average
Period ended Yr ended Period ended Yr ended Compound Compound
31.08.01 31.08.01 31.08.01 31.08.00 31.08.00 31.08.00 Yr ended Yr ended
(3 months) (6 months) (3 months) (6 months) 30.06.01 30.06.01
BREEDING HERD
Herd Structure
Av no sows and gilts in the herd 379 377 376 391 393 397 224 251
Av no unserved gilts 15 16 18 35 37 39 23 19
Av no productive sows 364 361 358 356 356 358 210 232
Sow performance factors
% breeding sow replacements 9.5 19.1 45.5 6.1 12.2 34.8 41.2 40.3
% breeding sow deaths 1.8 3.7 7.2 1.5 3.6 7.8 3.9 5.6
Recorded Services:
Farrowing (%) (*lagged) – 81.9* 80.0* – 81.6* 79.7* 83.1 80.7
Non-productive days 19 22* 22* 22 32* 30* 20 31
Av no litters/sow & gilt a year 2.37 2.35* 2.35* 2.35 2.28* 2.28* 2.35 2.29
Av no pigs reared/sow & gilt a year 22.6 22.6* 23.3* 24.9 24.7* 24.5* 24.0 22.2
Qty sow & boar feed/sow
& gilt a year(t) 1.308 1.281 1.269 1.163 1.213 1.221 1.191 1.249
Cost of sow and boar feed(£) 107.17 107.91 103.44 98.92 99.81 101.69 110.14 109.45
Litter performance factors
Av no pigs born a litter:
ALIVE 11.06 11.10 11.51 12.05 12.28 12.22 11.36 11.05
DEAD 0.97 0.97 1.01 0.98 0.93 1.03 0.78 1.13
MUMM 0.35 0.34 0.26 0.19 0.22 0.21 0.23 0.17
TOTAL 12.38 12.41 12.78 13.22 13.43 13.46 12.38 12.35
Av no pigs reared a litter 9.53 9.62 9.94 10.61 10.82 10.73 10.23 9.70
Pig performance factors
% mortality pigs born alive 13.8 13.3 13.6 11.9 11.8 12.2 10.0 12.2
Total feed cost/pig reared(£) 6.49 6.48 6.06 5.13 5.34 5.61 6.33 6.79
Av weight of pigs weaned(kg) 6.8 7.1 7.1 7.1 6.8 6.8 7.3 6.8
Av weaning age(days) 25 25 25 25 25 26 26 25
REARING HERD
No of pigs in herd 1363 1366 1393 1417 1454 1463 2173 2497
Av weight of pigs leaving herd(kg) 42.1 42.9 42.5 39.7 39.7 40.9 39.0 41.9
Av daily liveweight gain(g) 555 560 568 547 550 566 493 502
No of days in herd 63 64 62 59 60 60 65 70
Mortality(%) 1.7 1.9 1.5 1.4 1.5 1.3 6.3 5.0
Av feed/pig a day(kg) 0.87 0.88 0.91 0.87 0.86 0.88 0.86 0.93
Feed conversion ratio (kg feed/kg lwg) 158 1.58 1.60 1.60 1.56 1.55 1.74 1.84
Feed cost/kg lwg(p) 33.27 33.58 32.13 30.75 30.02 29.88 27.43 30.65
Overall cost/t feed(£) 211.23 212.57 200.54 192.12 192.93 193.76 157.55 166.19
FEEDING HERD
Av no pigs in herd 1483 1510 1543 1720 1686 1653 1017 1139
No pigs sold 1855 3952 8060 2130 4243 8587 – –
Av weight pigs leaving herd(kg) 96.9 98.2 98.2 96.4 95.8 96.7 97.2 94.9
Av daily liveweight gain(g) 759 776 793 763 774 798 777 713
No days in herd 72 71 70 74 72 70 78 81
Mortality(%) 2.2 2.4 2.4 2.2 2.3 2.1 2.1 2.7
Av feed/pig a day(kg) 2.18 2.17 2.19 2.10 2.04 2.10 2.06 2.10
Feed conversion ratio(kg feed/kg lwg) 2.87 2.80 2.76 2.75 2.63 2.63 2.65 2.95
Feed cost/kg lwg(p) 36.55 35.43 33.01 31.25 29.93 30.10 29.19 34.50
Overall cost/t feed (£) 127.22 126.65 119.74 113.55 113.78 114.60 110.04 117.10
Av carcass weight(kg) 72.9 73.7 73.6 72.3 71.8 72.5 72.6 72.0
Av sale value(£) (live & dead sales) 73.15 71.36 71.62 71.21 68.04 61.22 70.61 70.96
Av price deadweight(p) 100.38 96.83 97.32 98.50 94.71 84.40 97.16 96.53
REARING & FEEDING HERD COMBINED
Av weight pigs entering herd(kg) 6.8 7.1 7.1 7.1 6.8 6.8 7.2 6.9
Av weight pig leaving herd(kg) 96.9 98.2 98.2 96.4 95.8 96.7 95.3 94.0
Av daily liveweight gain(g) 661 673 686 665 670 689 642 600
No of days in herd 135 135 132 133 132 130 137 145
Mortality % 3.9 4.1 3.8 3.5 3.7 3.3 4.7 5.8
Av feed/pig a day(kg) 1.55 1.56 1.58 1.55 1.49 1.52 1.49 1.50
Feed conversion ratio (kgfeed/kg lwg) 2.35 2.32 2.30 2.32 2.22 2.21 2.31 2.49
Feed cost/kg lwg(p) 35.24 34.70 32.66 31.07 29.96 30.01 30.26 34.42
Overall cost/t feed(£) 149.86 149.78 141.81 133.62 134.84 135.73 130.74 138.02