Practical Management of the Transition to Batch Farrowing

Presented by Dennis Aarts at the 2009 London Swine Conference.

Mr. Aarts, who farms in Oxford County, provided a producer's perspective on batch farrowing based on his experience. In his paper, he begins by describing the positive aspects of batch farrowing:

• Grouping larger numbers of piglets together
• Time management efficiencies
• Increase in monitored farrowings
• Specialized labour sharing and scheduling

All of these advantages come with some management challenges, of course. Managing the transition of gilts, repeats and open sows into one of the batches is a key challenge. Hormonal regulation of the breeding cycle has a cost, and generally increases non-productive sow days. Batch farrowing requires batch breeding; there may be a need for changes to facilities in order to accommodate breeding more sows at once.

Common batch lengths are two, three or four weeks, depending on target weaning age and other factors. It is easier to make the adjustment if extra farrowing stalls are available, such as during a reduction in herd size. This allows leaving some pigs on the sow for a while longer, then weaning them along with some a bit earlier than normal in order to create a batch. Otherwise, delaying estrus hormonally will be necessary. Since some sows won't fit into a batch, a few farrowing stalls in excess of targets should be kept aside to accommodate these.

Batch farrowing requires a different form of management and some new techniques, but can offer significant advantages.

For an overview of the hormonal control of reproduction see "Hormonal Control of Pig Reproduction" by Dr. Glen Cassar, University of Guelph, also in the 2009 London Swine Conference Proceedings.

Related Links

• London Swine Conference

June 2009 Pork News & Views - Table of Contents