Benchmarking

Have you ever wondered what you should do with all the records you have collected on individual sows after you have shipped them? Not surprisingly, there is some extremely useful material still available after the sows have left, and these can be summarized into five categories:

1. Age of sow on leaving

2. Parity of sow on leaving

3. Pigs born alive in lifetime

4. Pigs weaned in lifetime

5. Litters farrowed in lifetime

The actual time of starting the clock on when is a sow a sow is not important as long as it is consistent within the herd. In a commercial operation purchasing replacement gilts, when the gilt is purchased is often used. If we examine the age of sows on leaving, we can do some calculations. In an ideal setting of being bred within 30 days of purchase and culled at the 7^th litter, you would expect an animal's age of something in the order of 3.02 years in the herd. You will not be any lower than this and very few people will actually be close to it, but the object is not to be a year longer than this figure either.

Similarly, the parity of the sow on leaving is an indicator of how quickly the sow herd is turning over. One of the main reasons for lower figures in a well managed operation is to take advantage of genetic improvements, or that it may be an indicator of planned changes, especially if changing breeding stock lines. It is also understood that low parity sows, on leaving at older ages, is a clear indicator of management problems in the breeding herd.

Pigs born alive in the time in the herd is an excellent indicator of the ability of the staff to manage the genetics being used. Genetic suppliers can often provide figures from a range of operations and when compared to a particular unit, you will have a good comparison on how your unit is performing. Pigs weaned in a lifetime is probably a better indicator than the old pigs/sow/year figure. This is a clear picture of how well managed the animals that arrive alive are and comparisons between facilities can be shocking. Litters farrowed in a lifetime are an indicator of the breeding barn skills present. Severe variation in this number can also indicate disease and nutritional problems (i.e. mycotoxins in grain).

These numbers are all relatively easy to determine and can be used as an in-house benchmarks on animal management skills. It must be remembered that they are history and so changes such as feed, genetics and staff can be expected or hoped to produce variations over time.