Better Pork - August 2016

Better pork

August 2016

FEATURE

An electronic eye on farrowing

One large-scale trial shows that the use of a data logger that monitors both sow and staff

performance during litter births added an extra 2.3 weaners per sow per year. And that gain

was in a Danish herd already selling 33 hogs per sow.

by NORMAN DUNN

iels Veng’s swine husbandry

aid looks like an ordinary

hand-held data logger. But

this inventor’s concept, called LISA2,

not only allows all litter details to be

punched in while attending a farrow-

ing. It also has a wireless link with the

herd computer. Here, the manager

can set a monitoring schedule for

every sow in the farrowing barn, for

instance requiring attendance every

four minutes during the birth process.

Does the resultant in-depth moni-

toring improve herd performance?

The answer is “yes,” according to

results from a three-month test in a

Danish 1,200-sow unit. This herd

already achieves an output of 33

weaners per sow and year. Twenty-

four hour surveillance supported by

the LISA2 resulted in an extra piglet

per litter saved at farrowing. Even

where a stockperson was on duty in

the farrowing barn during the day

shift only, the system helped increase

live piglet numbers by 0.5 per litter.

Moreover, subsequent litter mortality

up to weaning in this trial was re-

duced by three per cent compared to

herd performance before the LISA2

system was introduced. Niels Veng

points out that the 0.5 piglet per litter

increase equates to an extra 1.7 pigs

per sow per year in this herd. When

the recorded three per cent reduc-

tion in deaths from birth to weaning

is also considered, this trial gives an

increased average annual output of

2.33 weaners per sow in an already

very high performance herd.

The LISA2 logging system is set

for launch in the U.K. and France

this summer after extensive testing

in commercial herds in Denmark

and in a Russian herd too. Manager

of the British launch is Mark Cox.

Sales manager Mark Cox pictured here with

the lISA2 data logger. He says the new sys-

tem not only helps to precisely monitor sow

farrowing performance, it also represents a

continual check on the level of stockperson

attendance during birth.