Pig Flow Models

Dr John Carr

Murdoch University and Portec Australia

 

The easiest pig flow model to set is when the farm is still on the drawing board.  The aim of pig farming is to achieve production at a minimal cost given the opportunities.  Maintaining health contributes significantly to reducing the cost of production and the only way to resolve and maintain health is to achieve absolute all-in/all-out.

 

Unfortunately, the pig industry will cheat on all-in/all-out, (from time to time) and then hopes to “get away” without issues.  However, nature has a way of making the farm pay.  The more cheating that occurs, the more desperate cleaning protocols become, rooms are not rested and the pigs are overstocked or under-stocked, continuous flow starts or the equally ludicrous all-out only programme.  Health issues then occur, resulting in failure of growth and ventilation systems – the farm is on a negative health spiral.

 

 Farms generally need to take a long hard look at their layout and design a layout that will:

 

Of course new farms are a novelty.  Farms grow and while the farm was built with an ideal pig flow, with time new buildings are added, without pig flow being a consideration.  The chaos then starts to build up.

 

All farms batch

Many producers think that batching is just a term used by small farms.  However, to achieve all-in/all-out all farms must batch.  It just depends on what time interval the producer turns the farm.  The most common batches are:

Half a week

Once a week

Every two weeks

Every three weeks

 

Which weaning age should I pick?

Within the European Union, there is little real choice as it is illegal to wean before 21 days of age.  The weaning age should be determined by the quality of the nursery and available feeds.  A lactation shorter than 19 days reduces parity 1 sow production, lactations shorter than 17 days reduce parity 2 sow production – that is half the females on a normal parity structure herd.  Sows older than parity 3 do not generally suffer a production reduction with short lactations.

In the rest of the world such restrictions are not mandatory.

 

Table 1

The age range of piglets at weaning   (Assuming weekly weaning)

Weaning system

Minimum age

Maximum age

Average

3 weeks

14 days

21 days

18 days

3 weeks 2x week

17 days

21 days

19 days

4 weeks

21 days

28 days

24 days

5 weeks

28 days

35 days

31 days

7 weeks

42 days

49 days

45 days

 

One way to assess if a farm weaning weekly is adopting a formal all-in/all-out programme is to examine the average weaning age.  Many textbooks and papers discuss increasing weaning age by a day or two and the advantages this will invoke in your herd, but with weekly weaning, the weaning age can only move by 7 whole days – unless you change the day of the week you wean – which farms do not do.  If you move to twice a week weaning, you reduce the group size at weaning which often results in a loss of all-in/all-out in the wean to finish area.

 

Designing a pig flow model -Where should you start?

The finishing floor area should be the starting point.  Unfortunately, many farms adopt a variety of finishing systems with different sizes and pen layouts.  In addition, many farms have no idea of the size of the unobstructed floor area available for their pigs.

Therefore, in practice, the farrowing area is a good start and allows the farm to at least achieve all-in/all-out to the point of weaning.  If you do not practice all-in/all-out by weaning – you do not practice all-in/all-out anywhere.

 

What matters in the farrowing area?

To adopt all-in/all-out programme the farm needs to create equal batches of sows within a recognized time period (the BATCH).  The farm therefore needs to know

 

Should I wean twice a week or every 5 weeks?

The answer to this question should be determined by the size of your nursery accommodation which allows for all-in/all-out.

 

Table 2

Approximate herd size to produce a set number of weaners per batch

Batch time

0.5w

1w

2w

3w

5w

In weeks

Weaners/batch

to allow for

all-in/all-out

 

Herd size (approximate)

Sows/batch

50

260

130

65

45

30

5

100

520

260

130

90

55

10

200

1030

520

260

180

110

20

400

2060

1030

520

350

210

40

500

2570

1290

650

430

260

50

1000

5150

2570

1290

860

520

100

Excel spreadsheet  xls file   (for the excel file right click save as file)

The alternative method is to examine the layout of the farrowing area and decided how the space can be best utilized to produce a reasonable result.

 

Table 3

Number of rooms required to allow for all-in/all-out

Batch time

0.5w

1w

10d

2w

3w

4w

Weaning age

 

 

 

 

 

 

3 weeks

8

4

 

2

 

1

4 weeks

10

5

3

 

2

 

5 weeks

 

6

 

3

 

 

0.5w+ is weaning with the minimum weaning age is 17 days.

Spreadsheet  xls file (for the excel file right click save as file)

 

Note several models will not work over the 52 calendar weeks or groups do not align.

For example mated sows will farrow 115 days later but a farrowing crate is not available.

 

This can be illustrated graphically – excel spread sheet   (for the excel file right click save as file)

In all the figures the following colour codes apply:

Colour code

 

Sow move in

 

Lactation

 

Cleaning

 

Possible nursery /otherwise empty

The plans are designed around Monday and Thursday weaning for the 0.5 week batch and Thursday weaning for the other batch models.

 

Figure 1

3 week weaning room layout designs – Note these are illegal within the European Union

Batch 0.5 week

 

 

 

 

 

 

Batch 1 week

 

Batch 2 weeks

Batch 4 weeks

Day

Room Number

 

Room Number

 

Rooms

 

Room

 

 

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

1

 

1

2

3

4

1

 

1

2

1

 

1

1

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 2

4 week weaning room layout designs

Batch 0.5 week

Batch 1 week

Day

Room Number

 

 

Room Number

 

1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

1

1

2

3

4

5

1

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

4 week weaning room layout designs continued

 

Batch 10 days

      

Batch 3 week

Day

Room Number

Rooms

 

1

2

3

1

1

2

1

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Figure 3

5 week weaning room layout designs

Batch 1 week

Batch 2 week

Day

Room Number

Room Number

1

2

3

4

5

6

1

1

2

3

1

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Thursday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Monday

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Pig Flow models

The farm can then designed around the farrowing area with estimations made for the space required for each group.

 

Table 4

Example of the number of groups required dependent on the pig flow model

 

Batch time

 3 week weaning

4 week weaning

5 week weaning

 

0.5

1

2

4

0.5

1

1.5

3

1

2

weeks

Gilt introduction

9 weeks intro.

18

9

5

3

18

9

6

3

9

5

 

Gestation groups

16 weeks

32

16

8

4

32

16

11

6

16

8

 

Farrowing groups

variable

8

4

2

1

10

5

3

2

6

3

 

Nursery groups to

10 weeks old

14

7

4

2

12

6

4

2

5

3

 

Finish groups to

24 week of age

28

14

7

4

28

14

10

5

14

7

 

The farrowing groups have variable batch time dependent on the weaning age.

 Spreadsheet   xls file (right click and save  target as)

 

Once the farm team has determined the number of groups required in each section, the number of animals that will be in each group can be easily calculated.

 

Table 5

Minimum targets for pig production

Animal Group:

 

Calculation (using Excel notations)

Gilts pool requirement

 

= (BF/10)*( # weeks introduction)/batch time in weeks

Breeding females required per batch

BF

=Roundup (FS/Farrowing rate %)

Farrowing sows per batch

FS

 

Numbers weaned per batch

WB

= Rounddown (FS * Numbers weaned per crate)

Numbers sold per batch

 

= Rounddown ((WB)/(1-post-weaning mortality %) *(52/batch time in weeks))

 

Spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

 

Table 6

Example of farm pig flow models

Assumptions: 10 weaned per crate, 84% farrowing rate, 95% production post-weaning* and a 9 week gilt introduction programme using a one week batch programme.

Minimum number of animals in each category

Gilts pool requirement

6

11

22

33

44

54

Breeding females required per batch

6

12

24

36

48

60

Farrowing sows per batch

5

10

20

30

40

50

Numbers weaned per batch

50

100

200

300

400

500

Numbers sold per batch

48

95

190

285

380

475

* post-weaning pigs with a saleable value – remaining pigs after post-weaning mortality and culls removed.

 

 

Pig Flow calendars

Once a model is agreed then calendars of events can be constructed for all parts of the farm.

 

Table 7

Daily events in the adult herd for 2 months

The example herd used a 3 week batch 4 week weaning programme

The group identification (number) starts with the service group and ends with the finished pigs at market

2009

Batch time

3 weeks

Weaning age

4 weeks

 

Month

 

Monday

Tuesday

Wednesday

Thursday

Friday

Saturday

Sunday

 

Event

W

D

 

D

Service G

D

 

D

Wean G

D

Farrow G

D

 

D

 

January

1

29

 

30

S1

31

 

1

 

2

 

3

 

4

 

 

2

5

 

6

 

7

 

8

 

9

F3

10

 

11

 

 

3

12

 

13

 

14

 

15

W2

16

 

17

 

18

 

 

4

19

 

20

S2

21

 

22

 

23

 

24

 

25

 

 

5

26

 

27

 

28

 

29

 

30

F4

31

 

1

 

February

6

2

 

3

 

4

 

5

W3

6

 

7

 

8

 

 

7

9

 

10

S3

11

 

12

 

13

 

14

 

15

 

 

8

16

 

17

 

18

 

19

 

20

F5

21

 

22

 

 

9

23

 

24

 

25

 

26

W4

27

 

28

 

29

 

W= week.  D= day. G = group number

 

Table 8

Weekly events in the grow/finish herd in the same herd as table 5

The numbers in the table indicate which group of pigs are at which weight, group identification starts with the breeding sows and gilts at mating.

 

2009

Batch time 3 week

Wean    4 week

Month

 

10 week

12 week

15 week

20 week

24 week

Event

W

30 kg

45 kg

60 kg

95 kg

110 kg

January

1

G6

 

 

 

 

 

2

 

 

 

G3

 

 

3

 

G6

G5

 

G1

 

4

G7

 

 

 

 

 

5

 

 

 

G4

 

February

6

 

G7

G6

 

G2

 

7

G1

 

 

 

 

 

8

 

 

 

G5

 

 

9

 

G1

G7

 

G3

W= week.  D= day. G = group number

 

Pig Flow calendars:  Pig Flow Calendars General

 

Batch

Weaning age

0.5 week

3 week

1 week

2 week

4 week

0.5 week

4 week

1 week

10 days

3 week

1 week

5 week

3 week

6 week

7 weeks

Example of flows which will work with adjustments (for example)

4 week

4 week

 

 

Table 9

Stockperson routines around a pig flow model

 

The table below indicates which group of pigs require a specific task

This work sheet is designed for weaning once every three weeks at 4 weeks of age

                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                          

Task               Week

 1

2

3

4

5

6

7

8

9

10

11

12

13

14

15

16

17

18

19

20

21

22

23

24

25

26

Move wean sows

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

Breed

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

Heat Check 1

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

 1

 

Heat check 2

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

Condition score sows

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

+

 

 

Vaccinate 1 (6 weeks)

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

Vaccinate 2 (3 weeks)

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

Move into farrow

3

 

 

4

 

 

5

 

 

6

 

 

7

 

 

1

 

 

2

 

 

3

 

 

4

 

Boars to vaccinate

+

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Completed initials

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The numbers in the table refer to the identity of each group of sows – with the numbers starting at the point of breeding.

 

Stockperson routines examples with different pig flow models

Batch one week   Wean 3 weeks

Batch two weeks  Wean 3 weeks

Batch three weeks  Wean 4 weeks

 

 

What if I change the weaning day?

The models are easily adapted to farms weaning on Wednesday instead of Thursday.  Some farms have even changed to weaning on a Monday to allow for the most attention to be given to the newly weaned pig’s growth and socialization.

 

Table 10

Production events dependent on the day of weaning

Weaning day

Main breeding day (5 days later)

Farrowing day (114 days later)

Thursday

Tuesday

Friday

Wednesday

Monday

Thursday

Monday

Saturday

Tuesday

Detail

 

 

Can pig flow assist with cash flow analysis?

This is probably one of the greatest advantages in running a pig farm around its flow.  Once the farm is run based on production output targets the whole cost of production can be assessed.

 

Analysis of cost of production

 

Table 11

Costings for a batch of 10 farrowing crates

 

Batch time

0.5

1

2

3

4

weeks

 

Total costs $

 

810,160

405,080

202,540

135,027

101,270

$ annual

 

Feed costs %

66

534,706

267,353

133,676

89,118

66,838

$ annual

Labour costs %

14

113,422

56,711

28,356

18,904

14,178

$ annual

Genetic costs %

6

48,610

24,305

12,152

8,102

6,076

$ annual

Health costs %

4

32,406

16,203

8,102

5,401

4,051

$ annual

(Farming 10 farrowing crates a batch every week is approximately a 250 sow unit)

The breakdown costs are arbitrary to give examples.

Assumptions:  A $1 a kilo cost.  10 weaned per crate. 95% production post-weaning (post-weaning pigs with a saleable value).  Deadweight 82kg. 

 

Spreadsheet   xls right click save target as

 

 

Examples of real farm layouts

 

The following are real farm solutions.  The solution provided was that adopted by the farm health team, other options were available.

 

Achieving all-in/all-out

Case history

Farrow to finish farm with 101 farrowing crates.  Three rooms -  40  40  21

The farm weans at 4 weeks of age, but admits this was a little chaotic.  Produced 916 tonnes per year pork  (95 kg deadweight) but failed to achieve all-in/all-out.

 

Solution

Split the two rooms of 40 into 4 rooms of 20 to produce 5 rooms of 20.  The extra crate was not required.  The division of the room of 40 was easy to achieve without affecting the ventilation system.

 

Pig flow model: (Excel spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

Batch time

Weekly

Weaning age

4 weeks

Farrowing house layout

20   20   20    20   20

Gilts pool requirement

22

Breeding females required per batch

25

Farrowing sows per batch

20

Numbers weaned per batch

200

Numbers sold per batch

190

Weight sold annually

938 tonnes

Thus providing a more disciplined model, the farm can produce an extra 26 tonnes of pig meat.

 

Providing social time for the family and achieving all-in/all-out in the nursery

Case history

Farrow to 30 kg farm with 48 crates – 6 rooms of 8 crates. The nursery has accommodation for 230 weaners.  The farm produces 80 to 100 pigs a week and does not practice all-in/all-out.  Prior to the outbreak of Post-weaning Multisystemic Wasting Syndrome the farm produced around 4000 30kg weaners a year.  The farmer was 56 years old and the son was not interested in farming.

 

Solution

The following aims were discussed:

To achieve control of PMWS an all-in/all-out programme in the nursery was urgently required. The nursery requires 230 pigs – 23 a batch of crates to wean (10 weaners per crate).

The farm was easily divided into a 3 week batch programme weaning at 4 weeks of age.

 

Pig flow model: (Excel spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

Batch time

3 weekly

Weaning age

4 weeks

Farrowing house layout

8+8+8       8+8+8

Gilts pool requirement

9

Breeding females required per batch

29

Farrowing sows per batch

24

Numbers weaned per batch

240

Numbers sold per batch

233

30 kg pigs sold annually

4039

Thus the farm produced the same number of pigs but with more discipline, less effort and enhanced health for the weaners.  The week the farrowing house was empty – see figure was utilized as the first nursery week, which produced an extra half week of growth on the sale product which was realized as extra payments on the weaned pig at sale.

 

Additional comments

The nursery was examined, and if the passageway and small pens were removed there was sufficient room to run 250 pigs to 30 kg in a big pen situation – which reduced cleaning time by 50%.

The adoption of a 3 week batch programme provided more social time for the farmer and his wife – they had the first holiday away for 20 years!

 

Providing room for the grandparent stock

 

Case history

Farrow to finish farm with 192 farrowing crates.  11 rooms – 4 rooms of 20 crates and 7 rooms of 16 crates.  The farm weans at 3 weeks of age with no specific all-in/all-out.  Produced 133 tonnes a year pork (72 kg deadweight).

 

Solution

The grandparent herd should be removed from the main herd both in terms of the records and also physically as the farm weans at 3 weeks of age.  Purebred pigs do not perform well below 4 week weaning.

The main cost of the farm is associated with the commercial farm and ensuring that the finishing herd is performing well.  All-in/all-out must be achieved in the finishing herd.

To maintain the current finishing performance of 133K meat equates of 18,500 pigs finished.

Thus weekly this equates to 36 crates to wean per week. 

How can the available farrowing area be reorganized into at least 36 crates a week.

 

Four batches of farrowing room can be constructed by dividing two of the 20 farrowing rooms into 4 rooms of 10.

 

This then produces the following pig flow model:

 

Pig flow model main commercial herd (Excel spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

Batch time

Weekly

Weaning age

3 weeks

Farrowing house layout

16+16+10   10+16+16  16+16+10  10+16+16

Gilts pool requirement

45

Breeding females required per batch

50

Farrowing sows per batch

42

Numbers weaned per batch

420

Numbers sold per batch

399

Weight sold annually

149 tonnes

Thus providing a more disciplined model, the farm can produce an extra 16 tonnes of pork.

There was a requirement to increase the gestation sow accommodation which was achieved using straw based hoop structures.


The pure-bred herd pig flow

The remaining two rooms of 20 were then utilized to provide a three week batch programme weaning every 4 weeks.

 

Pig flow model pure-bred herd  (Excel spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

Batch time

3 weeks

Weaning age

4 weeks

Farrowing house layout

20      20

Gilts pool requirement

8

Breeding females required per batch

24

Farrowing sows per batch

20

Numbers weaned per batch

190 (9.5 weaned per crate)

Numbers sold per batch

181

Gilts produced annually

270

 

The boars and the rejected gilts from the pure-bred herd also contributed by providing extra meat output.

 

Pig Flow around the whole farm

Case history

A farm going through a depopulation and repopulation to enhance health.  Reduction in work force quality was also going to occur.  The farm required to adopt an all-in/all-out programme with  more discipline.  The newly established farm was going to multiply for a local breeding company and produce breeding gilt as a secondary income.

Farm is farrow to finish with 2 farrowing rooms one room of 24 the other of 36.  The farm produced just over 9000 finishing pigs a year.

 

Solution

To achieve all-in/all-out 12 additional farrowing crates were provided to be combined with the room of 24 creating two rooms of 36.

To achieve 9000 pigs a year, a 2 week batch 3 week weaning programme was adopted, although a 4 week weaning programme would have benefited the adult stock.

 

Pig flow model adopted  (Excel spreadsheet xls file (right click and save target as)

Batch time

2 weeks

Weaning age

3 weeks

Farrowing house layout

36      36

Gilts pool requirement

20

Breeding females required per batch

43

Farrowing sows per batch

36

Numbers weaned per batch

360(assuming 10 weaned per crate)

Numbers sold per batch

350 (97% production from weaning)

Pigs sold per year

9100 (gilts and commercial pigs)

 

The whole farm was the modeled on the 36 sows a batch to farrow model.  Using Google Earth a map of the farm was produced to explain the pig farm model to the whole farm staff

 

Figure 4

Producing a pig flow farm map

Batch description:  2 week batch 3 week old weaners

 

image001.jpg

 

 

Conclusion

To achieve all-in/all-out it is essential to produce a pig flow model.  While it is accepted that any biological system is subject to fluctuations, the farm should at least be designed that when nature works with the farm the pigs are given the best opportunity to perform to their genetic capacity.  While pig flow models should be designed around the finishing herd space availability, in practice, starting with the farrowing area proves to be more realistic.  The farm health team should discuss the various options given their facilities and production opportunities.  Once the pig flow model is adopted, production efficiencies and disciplines become more routine.

 

Summary

The farm health team need to develop a plan of their farm to allow for all-in/all-out to occur throughout the farm production system. 

The key to the system is   “Plan your farm and then farm your plan”

 

Pig flow in brief