SOW HOUSING SEMINAR2013 PORK ACADEMY

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Donald G Levis, Ph.D Harold Gonyou, Ph.D. Ronald O. Bates, Ph.D.

Levis Worldwide Swine Consultancy

Prairie Swine Centre(retired)

Michigan State Univ.

Lincoln, NE 68526-9486 Saskatoon, SK, Canada E. Lansing, MI

Email:donlevis@Hotmail.com

Email: harold.gonyou@usask.ca

Email:batesr@msu.edu

Sow Flow - General

Weekday Day Preg Spaces Area

Weaning Th 0 120 Breeding

Breeding Tu 5 0 120 Breeding

Preg check W 34 29 120 Breeding

To gestation M 39 34 108 (90%) Gestation

4 Recovery

To farrowing F 113 108 108 Farrowing

Weaning Th 140 120 Breeding

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Sow Flow - General

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 108 1192Recovery11 4 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 432

Weaning 14021 2384

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Sow Flow – Gestation Stalls

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 stalls 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 108 stalls 1192Recovery11 4 pens 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 crates 432

Weaning 140

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Sow Flow – Short Stalls

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 stalls 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 11 pens 121Recovery11 1 pens 11

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 crates 432

Weaning 140

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Sow Flow – Electronic Sow Feeders

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 stalls 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 1 g&p1 pen 11

1 sow pen 11Recovery11 4 pens 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 crates 432

Weaning 140

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Sow Care

• Controlling aggression

• Maintain feeding level

• Sow off feed

• Sow underfed

• Sow injured

• Sorting

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Sow Care – Reducing Aggression

Short Stalls

• Re-grouping– Maximize familiarity

– Extra feeding

• Feeding Associated– Sorting

– Group size

ESF

• Re-grouping– Maximize familiarity

– Extra feeding

• Feeding Associated– Sorting

– Group size

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Sow Care – Maintain Feeding Level

Short Stalls

• Check and adjust individual feed drops

ESF

• Program sows into ESF

• Check and adjust water and feed drops for each station

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Sow Care – Sow Off Feed

Short Stalls

• Detection– Watch feeding

• Causation– Unwell/lame

• Action– Move to relief

ESF

• Detection– Daily attention list

• Causation– Unwell/lame

– Intimidated

• Action– Move to relief or single-pass

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Sow Care – Sow Underfed

Short Stalls

• Detection– Body condition

• Action– Top up feed by hand

– Cannot change pen

– Move to relief

ESF

• Detection– Body condition

• Action– Reprogram feed allowance

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Sow Care – Sow Injured

Short Stalls

• Detection– Walk through and observe

• Action– Move to relief

ESF

• Detection– Daily attention list

– Walk through and observe

• Action– Move to relief

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Sow Care - Sorting

Short Stalls

• 1 in group of 10

• ‘hand’ sorting

ESF

• 1 in group of 60

• Hand held ID

• Auto-paint

• Auto-sort

• ‘hand’ sorting

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Labor - Skills

Short stalls

• Animal oriented

• Schedule conscious– Observe feeding

• One person

ESF

• Both technical and animal oriented

• One plus assistant

• Can you attract a technical person– Importance is decreasing due

to better systems and more tech-savvy youth

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ESF Conversion - Sow Flow

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 108 1188Recovery11 4 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 432

Weaning 14021 2384

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ESF Conversion - Considerations

• Retain flooring– Solid and slatted floors in 8 rows

– Use solid for lying and slatted for movement as much as possible

– Provide extra space due to restricted design

• Gilts must be trained– Modified one-pass system so non-feeding gilts are easily

managed

– Gilt pen needed each week for training

• Sows limited to 60 per station– Excess (parity 1) sows housed with gilts

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ESF Conversion - Sow Flow

Day Weeks Spaces/wk Spaces

Weaning 0 Breeding6 120 stalls 720

To gestation 39 Gestation11 1 g&p1 pen 11

1 sow pen 11Recovery11 4 pens 44

To farrowing 113 Farrowing4 108 crates 432

Weaning 140

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ESF Conversion – Floor cross section

Solid – alleySolid - stallSlat - stall

3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3

36.5 ft

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

48 animals x 20 sqft/animal = 960 sqft

960 sqft / 36.5 ft width = 26 ft length

Slats Slats

36.5 ft

26 ft

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

StationCentral divisionRest areasDrinkers

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ESF Conversion – Gilt Training

First day –Grouping, Aggression, Eating, Sleeping

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

One Pass System

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

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ESF Conversion – Gilt and P1 pen

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ESF Conversion – Sow pen

60 animals x 22 sqft/animal = 1320 sqft1320 sqft / 36.5 ft width = 36 ft length

36.5 ft

36 ft

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ESF Conversion – Sow pen

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ESF Conversion – Relief Pen

Combine 2 gestation stalls.

4 ft x 7 ft

Allows standing and lying with ease.

Difficult to turn around.

Use for lameness.

Return to same pen or newgilt and p1 pen. 29

ESF Conversion – Putting it Together

Gilt and Sow pens have been adjusted to allow cross-alleys.

Only 36 relief pens.Short 4 Sow pens.Need addition with 4800 sqft of pens (4x1, 2x2, 1x4?)

12.5% 30

ESF Conversion – Static or Dynamic

Static4 x 1 group

A

Dynamic2 x 2 groups

Dynamic1 x 4 groups

B

C D

A B

F G

A D

G J

ESF Conversion – What ifs?

• Could an additional sow pen fit in the original barn if you reduce the square footage per animal?– Reducing 1 sqft per animal is not enough

– Reducing 2 sqft per animal would allow one more pen

• Do we have to include relief pens?– Very strongly encouraged.

• Can we use larger dynamic pens?– Most suitable for sows. Work best when there are 12

‘weeks’.

• Can we work with 12 weeks of gestation?– Reduce the breeding weeks from 6 to 5 by preg checking and

moving earlier.32

ESF Conversion - Alternative

• Previous conversion forced a pen design in order to make full use of space in the gestation barn– Increased square footage per sow to ensure comfort

• Can we fit a better pen design in the space even if we accept some loss of use?– Longer narrow pens with one row of lying bays

• Assume gilts are pre-trained– Combined sow and gilt pens

• Reduce sow herd inventory to fit the building

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ESF Conversion – Floor cross section

Solid – alleySolid - stallSlat - stall

3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3 4 8 4 3

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ESF Conversion – Alternative Design

90 sows x 19 sqft/sow = 1710 sq ft

11 ft

8 ft

90 ft

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ESF Conversion – Alternative Design

Build within existing structureMove from breeding to gestation at day 34 (29 preg)5 weeks of stalls (500)42 relief pens12 ESF pens for 90 sows and gilts (2 stations)Loss of space along one wall (solid), used for sortingCan sort sows from one ESF pen to adjacentReduce breedings by 17% 36

ESF Conversions

• ESF uses larger pens which may be difficult to fit within an existing structure

• When required to ‘fit over’ an existing floor pattern, pen design is further compromised– Increase space compared to a new build

• Pen size may also be compromised by existing breeding plan – (eg. difficult to efficiently build for 140 breedings/week)

• Expect a 10-20% loss in sow numbers or increase in space

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Conclusion

Factsheets and the accompanying webinars for the Group Sow Housing project can be found at:

www.pork.org/sowhousing

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