The breeding gilts that gain the most weight during pregnancy will produce more live-born piglets compared to poorly growing gilts. This is the result of Nedap's analysis of the Porcitec management system. The results are based on data collected on a pig farm with 3,000 sows in Spain. That pig farm has a weighing device for gestating gilts and sows, and an automatic feeding system in the farrowing room.

The analysis showed that gilts weighing less than 30 kg during pregnancy produced 3 fewer live-born piglets than gilts weighing more than 100 kg. In addition, light gilts have a higher number of stillborn piglets compared to heavyweight gilts.

Gilts weighing less than 30 kg during gestation will produce 14.56 piglets on average, while gilts weighing 60-90 kg or more will produce 15.94 to 17.25 more live-born piglets. The number of stillborn piglets with a gilt weighing less than 30 kg is 1.65; a sow weight gain of 60-90 kg or more will produce 1.58 to 0.75 stillborn piglets.

Arno van Brandenburg, Nedap's business development manager, said that fine-tuning at the animal level may be the next step in the use of individual feeding equipment and weighing device data.

He said: “By observing the growth of the gilt or sow during the previous gestation more closely, the current pregnancy situation can be better monitored to achieve the best performance. If the gilt or sow has a lower Insemination at the weight level of gestation, but grows well during pregnancy, and is expected to give birth to a beautiful litter of piglets, then the challenge is to better guide these animals during pregnancy."

Journalist for Dairy, Beef and Pig

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