How Many Babies Can Pigs Have How Many Babies
Modern genetics take created hyperprolific sows, which regularly have litters with more than piglets than teats. The result: relatively loftier bloodshed figures amongst piglets and frequently a puzzle of how to become every piglet that lives all the fashion to weaning. A elementary solution might help overcome that.
Imagine a lactating sow having 22 piglets. Madness, yous say? Or will yous respond past saying something similar – that volition pb to many piglets being crushed.
Null of the sort – 22 is perfectly well possible, according to the team at young brute feed specialist Schils, headquartered in Sittard, in the south of the netherlands. At this EuroTier, the company, in the swine concern known for supplementary milk products for piglets, will introduce a method every bit to how this is possible. Equally information technology goes with many innovations – simplicity and logic tin achieve a lot.
Foster sows
Highly prolific sows are a common phenomenon these days, as e.thou. sows of Danish origin usually produce large litters. Now let's zoom out a little: What would commonly happen if the number of piglets exceeds the number of available teats? Farms tin can opt to create foster sows, i.eastward. sows from a different week group which, instead of going dorsum for a next breeding bicycle, will be giving milk for a prolonged time. The practise has a number of advantages as information technology will allow the supernumerary piglets to grow up – and in the Eu officially it isn't allowed to rear very immature piglets without a sow anyhow.
The practice, however, does come up with various disadvantages too. Information technology costs coin, keeping a sow away from a next bicycle of production, as all the fourth dimension she spends on lactating the new piglets is 'lost' for breeding purposes. Hence the practice of fostering will usually have an upshot on the subcontract's full efficiency. Additionally, a foster sow which farrowed a month agone or longer gives a different type of milk than a sow does a few days after farrowing. That might mean that piglets may not ingest the verbal type of nutrients they demand. Thirdly, cantankerous-fostering with sows from a different calendar week group is quite a logistical operation, which in plough could lead to stress with the animals or a college adventure of infections.
A member of the VanDrie Group
Schils, as young animal feed specialist, is a member of the VanDrie Group. This Dutch-based agribusiness is one of the larger players in the international veal market place, processing about i.6 meg calves every year. Apart from veal processing, the agribusiness family too includes companies focusing on calf husbandry, dairy raw materials, dogie skins and feed production – the last department including Schils. The company obtains part of its raw materials through Eurolat, a High german-based family member within the VanDrie Grouping. Autonomously from milk products for piglets, Schils also focuses on making products for e.one thousand. calves and lambs. For pigs, the company markets a three-pace concept, chosen Pigipro, running from milk later colostrum to extra growth after weaning. Well-nigh of the products come up in a powder form and water needs adding prior to use. The second and third steps are besides available in a pelleted form.
Solving the lactation chapters problem
The novel solution to overcome the lactation capacity problem is called 'ALFF', an easily transportable device which allows farmers to temporarily increment a farrowing pen's milk capacity. The company's innovation manager Jo Heusschen likes to compare information technology to an 'Ikea' thought. He says, "It is a very easy concept, like shooting fish in a barrel to dismantle and like shooting fish in a barrel to move."
The technology was adult by Paul Steeghs, who used to be a grunter breeder himself until recently. The essence of the idea is to keep all piglets with a sow, but just provide them with a little flake of actress milk in a cup which is supplied by an automatic dispenser – the Automatic Liquid Flexible Feeder (which makes the acronym ALFF). When continued to the electricity network, the machine tin can supply an amount of the milk to the cups every hour, at a frequency just similar a sow would. This makes the piglets constantly interested and prevents the cup from becoming muddy. I flexible feeder can serve two sows simultaneously.
Clever swine farmers will immediately see the added value of this concept, adds Mr Heusschen. Later on all, the system also allows creating foster sows within the aforementioned week group. In this case ane litter tin be divided over two other sows aided past a flexible feeder, one sow tin can exist freed up to help others. In this case no sow is taken out of her production cycle, every bit she is doing what she was meant to practice anyway, see Figure 1.
Apart from the supporting function the Schils squad identified a 2d strategy for the liquid flexible feeder – predominantly applicable outside the European Wedlock: that of motherless rearing. Within the EU, motherless rearing is non encouraged for welfare reasons, but outside Europe this might be a strategy worth considering for swine farms.
Figure 1 – Schematic cartoon of how an automatic liquid flexible feeder can plough 3 litters into two. The blue piglets together formed a litter of a sow that is 'freed up' for foster sow purposes within the same week group.
Applied application
And so far for the theory – how does the concept work in practice? In spring 2018, Schils' nutritionist Nicole Lousberg had a trial prepare at the Swine Innovation Centre (VIC), part of Wageningen University, the Netherlands. Litters of forty gilts and sows joined in the trial – 1 half formed the control group, with the piglets receiving a regular pre-starter twice a day as from twenty-four hour period two after farrowing. The other half received support of the flexible feeder, 24 times a day a limited quantity every time, co-ordinate to the company'south feeding portfolio (see box). In order to be able to measure the effects every bit, litter sizes were standardised at 15 piglets. Weaning occurred at 28 days in both groups.
The trial yielded that at weaning, piglets in the group receiving support were heavier than the piglets in the control group. At 14 days of age, the piglets in the group receiving support were 530 g heavier than those in the control group – a weight difference that grew towards the cease of the weaning phase. In comparison to the command group, 21% more piglets were weaned with a weight of more 8 kg, and 3.6% fewer piglets were weaned with a weaning weight of lower than half dozen kg.
In add-on, the research squad institute, the intake of the milk replacer did not reduce the intake of the weaner diet but rather increased the overall feed intake.
Trial aimed at reducing motherless rearing
A 2nd trial focused on the reduction of motherless rearing, and this was done on an contained trial subcontract in Oirschot, the Netherlands, in June 2018. After all, with the back up of the liquid flexible feeder, sows can rear more piglets, which in turn practice not accept to exist raised 'motherless'. Sows were observed to deal with 21 and 19 piglets. The group of 206 piglets accomplished an average growth of 199 g/twenty-four hours as long as the liquid flexible feeder was used during 19 days.
Interestingly, the total mortality rate was 3.89% from day two until weaning. On average, this figure in the Netherlands is at 13.iv%.
Source: https://www.pigprogress.net/pigs/22-piglets-at-one-sow-and-it-is-no-problem/
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