Articles - Management

This tip uses a stamp to mark the sows that we should pay more attention to during farrowing.

When was the last time that you disinfected your cellphone?

333 interviews Dr. Craig Lewis, a leader in genetics and animal welfare, who is currently overseeing Genetic Dissemination in the EMEAR region.

The relatively short but very intense lactation period is undoubtedly a key phase in pig production for both sows and piglets. The fragility of the piglets and the significant demands that sows face at this stage make early detection of problems essential. Do we understand what the animals are telling us?

Javier Lorente tells us how to make newly weaned piglets comfortable and, above all, how to get them to start drinking and eating as soon as possible.

Goggles, masks, earplugs, helmets, boots... We use a lot of PPE on farms, but maybe you hadn't thought of how to protect your fingers when grinding teeth. We'll show you.

Javier Lorente outlines step by step the keys to reducing piglet stress during the weaning process.

We are sharing an example of a sow card used to record basic breeding sow data, which is essential on all farms regardless of their size.

This trick allows us to save hypothermic piglets easily, quickly and with surprising results.

Everything you need to know to successfully wean your piglets.

Meeting the needs of the newly weaned pigs often proves to be difficult in many production settings.

Why is it important to take sow temperatures after farrowing? How does feed intake affect litter size?

The aim of this trick is the improvement of the quality of the environment in the farrowing quarters for the sows as well as for the piglets, saving on energy consumption by means of the manufacturing of nests.

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.

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.

A correct supervision is one of the key points of a farrowing.

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.