Start the batch on the right day of the week

1	Start the week the day after weaning – Day 1. For example day one is Friday when weaning on a Thursday or Thursday when weaning on a Wednesday.
2	It is essential to mate sows 4-6 days post-weaning Monday to Wednesday – when weaning on Thursday
3	Effect of the day of mating post-weaning
	On the subsequent Farrowing Rate
	On the subsequent Total piglets Born
4	Ensure that the same sows that were recorded bred are the same sows who are now due to farrow
	Sows that mate on a Monday to Thursday will farrow Thursday to Sunday 115 days later. There is a natural spread of gestation lengths from 112 to 118 days (average 115). The mated batch of sows will move into their farrowing quarters on Monday of their farrowing week which for the average sow is at a gestation length of 110 days.

5

The impact of getting the start wrong:

The difference may be perceived to be small, but can be potentially significant

Example from a 12 sow a batch to farrow unit:

A red number indicates below target

Farm weans on a Thursday – records start Friday and end Thursday

Batch	Served	Pregnancy		Farrowed	FR %	# weaned
		Week 3	Week 6
1	16	15	13	13	81	132
2	15	14	14	14	93	138
3	13	13	13	11	85	115
4	14	14	13	12	86	118
5	13	12	12	12	92	117
6	14	14	14	12	86	124
7	14	14	12	6	43	65
8	12	11	11	9	75	89
9	12	11	10	9	75	94
10	21	19	18	15	71	151

Farm weans on a Thursday – records start Monday and end Sunday

Batch	Served	Pregnancy		Farrow	FR %
		Week 3	Week 6
1	15	15	14	14	93
2	9	8	7	7	78
3	18	17	17	16	89
4	13	13	12	10	77
5	15	15	15	15	100
6	14	13	13	12	86
7	15	15	15	11	73
8	14	14	12	9	64
9	13	12	11	8	62
10	18	16	15	13	72

The farm above has the following pig flow plan:

The simple change in the start date completely changes the advice and comments given to the farm. It is difficult even to consider the two records as coming from the same farm and represent the same week. The most important aspect is that the number of piglets weaned only match the records starting the day after weaning. Planning for the number weaned determines the health for the remainder of the wean to finish period.

It should be noted that the example farm did not demonstrate good batch pig flow at the time. The farm now breeding 14-17 a batch.

Healthy pig farming revolves around an efficient consistent pig flow