Ontario producer uses the measurement to adjust a sow’s diet after breeding to increase piglet weight gain
RIDGETOWN, Ont. — A young Ontario pork producer credits a back-fat measurement program for impressive numbers at his family’s operation.
Graham Learn told the Southwestern Ontario Pork Conference Feb. 18 that sows at Richmar Farms are weighed before breeding and then measured for back fat a week after being bred.
The measurement guides the feeding program over the 115-day gestation period.
“They may look similar, but you can tell by the back fat that they’re not in the same condition,” Learn said, pointing to a photograph of two sows, one with 23 millimetres of back fat and one with 10.
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“The first 35 days is crucial to get the sows back into condition.”
The Learn family uses data from Kansas State University to adjust individual sow diets for the first 35 days. A standard diet follows, and then feed is increased for the final 15 days of gestation.
“With the back-fat measurement, we’re able to feed them less but get more weight gain on the piglets,” Learn said.
The farm is part of a benchmarking group of producers that compares production records.
The operation was within the top two to three percent for P1 through P3 sow retention and sow death loss.
The average weaning weight at 21 days was 7.1 kilograms.
Pigs weaned per sow came in at 11.6, and the farrowing rate was 90.6 percent.
The total weight of piglets per crate per year was 1,023 kg, which was the highest number for the benchmarking group.
Almost 96 percent of sows were bred by seven days.
The number of weaned pigs per breeding female was just shy of 27 for January to June of last year and up substantially from previous numbers.
Learn wants to hit the 30 mark, and respected Minnesota veterinarian Dr. Tim Loula said he expects Learn will meet that objective in a couple years.
Batch farrowing on a two-week cycle has been adopted, even though the 350 sow-to-weaner barn was originally designed for continuous flow. Piglets are weaned at 20 or 21 days and moved out at 50 days at 24 kilograms.
The system allows for an all-in-all-out regimen throughout the system. Sixty-four farrowing crates are divided among four rooms with heat lamps and floor heating.
The eight weaner rooms hold 185 pigs each. Room temperatures are gradually lowered to 21 C when the weaners reach 24 kilograms. Two weaner rooms are filled every two weeks.
“Because of our batch system, we’re able to have all-in-all-out and wash, disinfect and dry all the rooms.”
Weaners are finished at four sites with 2,700 total spaces. Some are sold.
Biosecurity is a priority at the farm. The family invested in the area using the Ontario cost-share program that was introduced last year following the porcine epidemic diarrhea outbreak.
A loading chute keeps the farm’s fifth-wheel trailer five metres from the barn. There’s a single-point Danish-bench entry system and a shower that staff use before entering sow areas.
Work clothes are laundered in the barn. Products are delivered to the barn through a window and cleaned, dried and put through a 24-hour waiting period before they are used.
Manure is incorporated with a dragline system to avoid tanker traffic. The family previously rented a tanker.
Visiting feed trucks auger feed into holding bins with the drivers remaining in their cabs since the farm installed a used feed mill system five years ago.
Learn works with his brother, Adam, wife, Allison, parents, Richard and Marlene, and one full-time employee.
The family will grow 275 acres of corn this year, which will be dried and stored on farm for feed. There will be an equal amount of soybeans and about 50 acres of wheat, where manure will be applied.
