Page 3 - Swine Newsletter March 2020 FINAL Pages no bleeed

Interchem Swine Spring/Summer Newsletter 2020

The Benefits of Synchronised Production Flow

Synchronised production flow cilities. It is not possible to com- oestrus in gilts in weekly man-
is the golden key for unlock- pensate for a lack of gilts/sows in aged systems improves the flow of
ing your pig unit performance. one batch by loading more sows breeding animals within different
There are two approaches to in the next batch. While a farm parts of the breeding unit. Planned
production flow management. may reach the average targeted number of gilts in heat for each
1) Why we would want to services and average targeted particular batch allows having the
have a synchronised produc- farrowings, there may well be a right number of gilts at the ap-
tion flow? What would it mean huge weekly variation. This leads propriate age served every week
on our farm, if we are able to to holding back sows which need which enables reduction of a gilt
control the production flow culling, sows from different weeks pool. Lower average age results in
and increase pig performance? in the same farrowing house and decreased cost per gilt in terms of
2) When and how do we do it? Are sows being weaned either too ear- housing and feeding expenses on
the staff on the farm able to follow ly or too late. the farm.
the rules and develop systems that Appropriate gilt management is Gilts are a massively important
create consistency? important for breeding efficiency part of any pig farm and the ma-
A consistent flow of gilts and sows and an increasing number of Irish nagement of these gilts is essenti-
to the farrowing house gives the pig herds are now synchronis- al to ensure we get the most from
best utilisation of production fa- ing their gilts. Synchronisation of them while being as efficient as
we can. For example, many Irish
pig farms have a larger pool of gilts
Figure 1 Gilt service spread than they need and when transla-
ted into money, this is where pro-
ducers can make a saving.
Interchem’s Technical Specialist,
Lisa Hopkins, is available to
discuss how we can help you
become more efficient when
selecting and breeding your gilts
– the future of your herd. Lisa will
set your farm up on Repronomics
and demonstrate how to get the
best value and information from
the tool.

Figure 1 shows how an Irish herd who are synchronising gilts were able to reduce their gilt
service spread from 7 days a week to a 2-3 day window thus allowing the staff to service gilts Repronomics
on the same day as weaned sows and subsequently farrow on the same days. Reproduction Economics

- To summarise - Repronomics is a farm manage-
ment tool that focuses on how
Synchronising production flow production flow alignment solu- the reproductive performance of
leads to; consistent and syn- tions. A range of free technical ser- your sows and gilts effects the
chronised farrowing; significant vices are available that are focused overall performance and ‘flow’
cost saving from reduced and on providing high quality bespoke of your farm. An economic value
optimised feed consumption; management tools for your specif- and an efficiency percentage is
increased sow lifetime perfor- ic production profile. A long term calculated for your farm and this
mance and increased piglet quality approach is taken that makes sure will highlight areas that require im-
at weaning. you are continually updated with provement, for example, farrowing
In conjunction with your veterinary key best practice developments, rate, replacement gilts required,
practitioner, additional support enabling you to truly benefit from stocking densities etc. This tool
is available, free, to producers on
services can help pig producers implementing controlled and con- a gilt synchronisation programme
in the development and manage- sistent gilt synchronisation. with Interchem.
ment of production plans and