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Better Pork
December 2016
info@alliancegeneticscanada.ca Terminal & Maternal semen available at OSI. The “A” clean team maintains high health and biosecurity standards as we work with world-class veterinarians and the CFIA. We are continually monitoring and testing our herd to protect the herds of our customers as well as our own. This is how we do our part to protect the swine industry. Trust your success to the “A” team. The “A” team clean machine. Trusted genetics. Count on us. www.alliancegenetics.com 1-877-462-1177OPTIMIZING
SOW
OUTPUT
out its lifetime. Individual feeding
for sows according to body condition
and litter size is another must for
the Danes. Housing aspects include
having non-slip flooring in all areas
to prevent injuries that can dramati-
cally shorten a productive lifetime
and having enough hospital pens for
immediate isolation and treatment of
injured sows.
For daily supervision, Danish
advisers put a lot of emphasis on the
herd managers getting the sows up
and moving around during every
inspection. The advisers suggest
immediate removal of the sows to
hospital pens if excessive stiffness or
tender feet are obvious and if bite
injuries occur.
The long-living herd featured in
the table – an example taken from
the top 25-per-cent sector of breed-
ing herds in northern Germany
(Schleswig-Holstein) – shows what
can be achieved when good manage-
ment is added to powerful genetic
progress. This farrow-to-finish herd
with 150 DanAvl sows produces 35.2
weaners per sow from an average 2.48
litters per year. Here, 13 per cent of
sows are still producing well (12.3
weaned per litter) with their 10th
litter. Top production per sow occurs
during litters four and five, each with
an average 13.6 piglets weaned. And
57 per cent of sows here produce a
fifth litter. After the sixth litter, the
most common reason for slaughter in
this herd is leg and foot problems.
When top-class management and
years of genetic striving toward sow
longevity come together, the results
paint an optimistic picture for future
swine herd performance. Austria is
perhaps the best example of Euro-
pean progress. The national hybrid
program produces (F1) slaughter hog
mothers (typically, the first hybrid
production cross mothers) that cur-
rently average just below seven litters
each on commercial farms. Just under
one quarter of the 50,000 recorded
females are still profitably producing
with their 10th litter. The Austrian
“record sow” in the national record-
ing program so far was born in 2000
and has produced 26 litters with a
total of 288 piglets born alive.
BP
When top-class management and years of
genetic striving toward sow longevity come
together, the results paint an optimistic
picture for future swine herd performance.