Articles - Management

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

Despite being a well-known technique, mistakes are still made with its application on farms, and questions are raised that we will try to answer.

Normally the productivity of the sow is valued for the number of litters/sow/year multiplied by the number of weaned piglets per litter.

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.

A high dose of oxytocin given in the 16 h following the end of farrowing prolongs the colostral phase which can improve the quality of milk in early lactation.

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.

We can place the weakest piglets from each litter to dry out and warm up in this incubator while we tend to the next sows.

Understanding the farrowing process and recognizing the signs for the different stages of birth, help us to develop management plans to improve the likelihood for live born piglets.

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With this article we begin the publication of a series of three unpublished articles by José Barceló for pig333.com on the age at weaning.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.