08/21/2006
No Heat in Weaned Sows, late heat
Hi.
My problem is weaned sows that either cycle in farrowing crates or cycle late like 10 - 15 days after weaning. I wean at 22.5-24 days old. Up till a month and a half ago I was averaging over 94 bred by day seven, but the month following this I have been struggling to get 70 bred by day seven. Obviously the weather has been awfully warm and consequently feed intake is down a bit, but considering temperature (85 - 95F) feed intake is still very solid. Farrowing location has drip system to cool sows, so that shoud help. A practice on our farm is to bump up energy levels in lactating rations during warm weather, which we did and I'm wondering if that maybe triggered something???
Some of the factors I think may contribute are sows cycling in crates, run - down sows, nutrition?????????
Any comment would be gladly noted.
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Communication Manager
Staff: Hypor
Canada - Saskatchewan
Rank
9
Contact
08/23/2006
Re: No Heat in Weaned Sows, late heat
Hi,
It sounds like you have done the right things and as long as your equipment is working properly you have covered the basics. Without knowing your production, one problem could be the number of pigs suckling. If a sow has less then 8 piglets sucking, the chances of her cycling in the crate increases. If you have sick or challenged pigs the sow may start drying up and begin to cycle early as well.
Good luck,
Sheldon Popadynec
Production Manager, Hypor
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Hog Manager
Canada - Manitoba
Rank
4
08/24/2006
Re: No Heat in Weaned Sows, late heat
Hi,
Thanks for responding Sheldon. To answer your question on production, I looked up the sows that havent cycled and they averaged over 10 pigs weaned per sow and the piglets weight was over 7 kg. Also, body condition on sows coming out of farrowing was for most part good. I have no health challenges in sows and piglets at this point.
What I have considered is using PG-600 in this warmer weather. Last year I used it and it was very effective. The reason Im not using this year is because I was starting my herd last year and I actually thought a mature sow herd would be affected differently. My only question is is it cost effective, I figure I would be spending $0.46 per weaned piget which for me would be cost effective.
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10/08/2007
Re: No Heat in Weaned Sows, late heat
I would be interested in a few things. Gestation feeding program, pre-farrow feeding levels, post-farrow feeding guidelines, at what age is pre-wean mortality the highest, and the average feed intake of nurse sows through the lactation period.
Henry Rosolowski
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