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 |
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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 |
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3 weeks |
8 |
4 |
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2 |
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1 |
4 weeks |
10 |
5 |
3 |
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2 |
|
5 weeks |
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6 |
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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 |
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Lactation |
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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 |
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Batch 1 week |
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Batch 2 weeks |
Batch 4 weeks |
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Figure 2
4 week
weaning room layout designs
Batch 0.5 week |
Batch 1 week |
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Day |
Room Number |
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Room Number |
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1 |
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4 week
weaning room layout
designs continued
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Batch 10 days |
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Batch 3 week |
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Day |
Room Number |
Rooms |
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1 |
2 |
3 |
1 |
1 |
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1 |
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Figure 3
5 week
weaning room layout designs
Batch 1 week |
Batch 2 week |
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Day |
Room Number |
Room Number |
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1 |
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3 |
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5 |
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1 |
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3 |
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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 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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2 |
5 |
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6 |
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7 |
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8 |
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9 |
F3 |
10 |
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11 |
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3 |
12 |
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13 |
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14 |
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15 |
W2 |
16 |
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17 |
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18 |
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4 |
19 |
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20 |
S2 |
21 |
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22 |
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23 |
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24 |
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25 |
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5 |
26 |
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27 |
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28 |
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29 |
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30 |
F4 |
31 |
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1 |
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February |
6 |
2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
W3 |
6 |
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7 |
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8 |
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7 |
9 |
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10 |
S3 |
11 |
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12 |
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13 |
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14 |
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15 |
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8 |
16 |
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17 |
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18 |
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19 |
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20 |
F5 |
21 |
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22 |
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9 |
23 |
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24 |
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25 |
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26 |
W4 |
27 |
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28 |
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29 |
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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 |
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2 |
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G3 |
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3 |
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G6 |
G5 |
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G1 |
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4 |
G7 |
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5 |
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G4 |
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February |
6 |
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G7 |
G6 |
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G2 |
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7 |
G1 |
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8 |
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G5 |
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9 |
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G1 |
G7 |
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G3 |
W=
week. D= day. G = group number
Pig Flow calendars:
Pig Flow
Calendars General
Batch |
Weaning age |
3 week |
|
4 week |
|
5 week |
|
7 weeks |
|
Example of flows which will work with adjustments
(for example) |
|
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 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
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6 |
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7 |
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1 |
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2 |
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Breed |
1 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
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6 |
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7 |
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1 |
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2 |
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Heat Check 1 |
7 |
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1 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
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6 |
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7 |
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1 |
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Heat check 2 |
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7 |
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1 |
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2 |
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3 |
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4 |
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5 |
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7 |
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1 |
Condition score sows |
|
|
+ |
|
|
+ |
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|
+ |
|
|
+ |
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|
+ |
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|
+ |
|
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+ |
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|
+ |
|
|
Vaccinate 1 (6 weeks) |
|
5 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
7 |
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
4 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
6 |
Vaccinate 2 (3 weeks) |
|
4 |
|
|
5 |
|
|
6 |
|
|
7 |
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
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|
4 |
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|
5 |
Move into farrow |
3 |
|
|
4 |
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|
5 |
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|
6 |
|
|
7 |
|
|
1 |
|
|
2 |
|
|
3 |
|
|
4 |
|
Boars to vaccinate |
+ |
|
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|
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|
|
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|
|
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|
|
|
|
|
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Completed initials |
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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
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 |
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)
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
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”