Body condition scoring of pigs may not be high-tech, but it re-quires soft skills that not everybody has.
“What’s really important (is that) we have good staff people, and that people are trained well,” Malachy Young, an Alberta feeding specialist, said during the Manitoba Swine Seminar. “It’s an acquired skill that can be achieved by training, but not everybody has that skill.”
Feeding pigs right and keeping them in optimum condition is key to profitable production and a well-operating system.
High-tech methods to assess hogs are available, but Young said visual scoring has shown good results in a few Alberta barns with which he is familiar.
“It’s not an easy skill,” said Young.
“It’s a skill that comes with a good herdsperson that has the understanding of assessing the condition and then determining where the feeding level should be set.”
