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Better Pork
June 2016
EYE
ON
EUROPE
Back in 2009, the published na-
tional swine herd results showed a
pre-weaning litter mortality of 12.6 per
cent. At this point, the farmers’ union
(LTO) and the specialist swine farm-
ers’ association NVV got together with
the veterinary association and breeding
organizations to announce a national
campaign to reduce litter mortality by as
much as 20 per cent within a decade. As
often happens with good intentions, the
plan went badly wrong. By last year, the
mortality figure before weaning stood at
over 13 per cent.
Welfare activists have gone to press
claiming that this failure is all the fault
of the breeding trend toward steadily
increasing litter size, although both the
Netherlands and Denmark changed di-
rection for several years now to lifetime
production per sow. They leave litter-
size increase out of the equation.
However, the activists now have the
backing of the Dutch government. Min-
ister for Agriculture Martijn van Dam is
gunning for a litter limit, too.
Coming to the rescue of the Dutch
swine industry are researchers Herman
Vermeer and Marion Kluivers from
the country’s Wageningen University.
Speaking out in the university publi-
cation
Resource
, both agree that the
breeding toward lifetime production
and smaller litters with the emphasis on
piglet vitality is the way to go.
But the experts go on to say that
breeding for maternal instinct (i.e.,
breeding better sow mothers) is a major
key. Other important points cited by
the experts include housing climate. For
optimum piglet survival, a temperature
immediately post-birth of 35 C, but just
Alfalfa silage and homegrown barley
and peas constitute the recipe for
low-cost hog rations on a British
research farm. See page 51.