May 12, 2016

12/05/2016: Feeding chelated trace minerals to sows offers choice of when to cull

https://issuu.com/gfmt/docs/mag1603_w1/78
When a sow’s nutritional needs are met, it improves her performance in many ways, which can reduce the likelihood of having to cull her before she meets peak productivity.

by Cassio Villela, Sr Marketing Specialist, Global Swine, Novus International, Inc

First published in Milling and Grain, March 2016


How often do you cull sows you wish could stay in production longer? Nutrition can play a critical role in when and why you cull a sow. Studies show that feeding sows MINTREX® chelated trace minerals can help put you back in charge of the culling decision.

“In North America, the average annual replacement rate for sows is approximately 49 percent. In the United States, the main reasons given for culling were failure to conceive, poor performance, lameness, locomotion, death and age,” said Dr Yulin Ma, Technical Services Manager at Novus International Inc.

“Reports indicated that average sow parity at culling was 3.3 with a total of 36 pigs produced. In total, 55 percent of the sows culled for locomotion issues or lameness were removed prior to parity 2”.

Value of sow longevity High sow replacement rates can harm the operation in many ways. For most sows, peak productivity arrives at parity, therefore maintaining sows in the herd beyond parity 3 could allow producers to maximize productivity and profitability.

In addition, “Replacement gilts are costly and can have a significant impact on a producer’s bottom line,” said Dr Ma.

“Gilts are tougher to breed, offer lower performance in terms of piglets born and require more labour to manage and feed.”

Healthy sows produce more, healthier piglets, which results in a lower weaned pig cost, he said. So, maintaining high performance sows in their best production for longer periods of time has a lot to offer in performance and profitability.

Read the full article in Milling and Grain HERE
 
   
 

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which is published by Perendale Publishers Limited.


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