Have I bred sufficient sows and gilts this batch?
Examining the type of female being bred, allows you to determine the probable farrowing rate for this batch of females.
In particular it allows you to understand why a particular batch appears to fail. If you breed a lot of returns in a batch the farrowing rate is going to be low!
This calculator examines variables that can affect the farrowing rate:
Lactation length, Wean to service interval, returns, parity and season. For more details on these follow the individual links.
Examine your previous results for each of these categories and input your values into the yellow boxes or accept the guide numbers
The numbers are set up for Western Australian farms
Set the farrowing rate predictors for each of the categories
Then input the number of animals in each category for this current batch
Note in the example shown, it took 15 females to be bred to fill the 10 farrowing places and the farrowing rate was 69%
No diseases or pathogens are involved in this example, it is purely associated with too many return sows and one sow with a late wean to service interval.
If the farm normally had a 84% farrowing rate, the breeding target would have been 12 females a week. If only 12 had been bred, several farrowing places would have been empty