Farrowing Accommodation
- Two rows of sows face a central passage.
- The layout of the rooms and the manually operated valves ensure individual feeding of sows.
- Sows are moved to the farrowing house four to five days before they are due to farrow.
- Litters are evened up for size with small pigs being moved to younger sows.The bigger pigs are put onto older sows.
- Target mortality in the farrowing house is less than 8 percent.
- A simple 'T'card recording system is used to record sow number,date due to farrow,date farrowed,born alive,born dead, mummified,causes of death,number weaned and date weaned.
- Sows are fed twice/day.
- From entry into the farrowing house until they farrow they are given 2.25 kg (5 lbs)/day.
- Feed levels are increased to a maximum of 7.75 kg (17 lbs)/day.
- Average feed intake/farrowing space is 5.5 kg (12 lbs)/day.
- Feed levels are kept to a level where troughs are cleaned up by mid morning and sows are up looking for feed in the afternoon.
- Shredded paper provides a comfortable bed for the pigs,helps keep them away from the sow and helps prevent splay legs.
- To prevent two day scour in the farrowing house feed back is practised in the dry sow house.
- Dung from second stage weaners (20 kg) is given to the sows twice/week.
- Supplementary heat is provided by electric heat pads.
- Pad temperature is set at 35 C.
- House temperature is initially set at 25 C.When all the sows in a room have farrowed it is reduced to 21-22 C.
- A chequered steel plate helps protect the slatted plastic flooring.
- There are no nipple drinkers in the farrowing pens.
- Water is provided manually twice/day.
- Individual troughs are filled using a 5 gallon drum.
- The drum is filled (in a few seconds) from a 50 mm (2") supply pipe attached to the wall at the end of the farrowing room.
- Creep is introduced when the pigs are 15 days old.
- It is fed in a 300 mm x 150 mm x 50 mm(12" x 6" x 2") mild steel tray.
- Water is also provided in a dish (75 mm(3") deep) when the creep is introduced