MANAGEMENT ▶▶▶
Weighing up the effect of parity and prolificacy
Aimed at sharing best practices and innovations in swine production, the EU PiG Innovation Group presents ambassadors whose innovations stand out. In this episode: the Kalinat index, an online tool to assess litter quality.
BY NATALIE BERKHOUT, CORRESPONDENT
The ambassador Together with his father and brother, Corentin Nevannen is the ambassador of the Kalinat approach and farms 350 sows in south Brittany, France.
The collaboration Kalinat, a creative combination of the words “quality” and “na- tality”, is the creation of Alban Berthelot, a member of the pig nutrition team at the Eureden cooperative in France. The Kali- nat approach was developed with about 30 pig farms in Brit- tany, and Corentin is one of the most involved pig farmers.
The innovation For both sow prolificacy and parity, a target average piglet weight is calculated to ensure the maximum survival of the piglets. This target average weight comes from a vast data- base of breeders in the Eureden cooperative who have weighed thousands of litters of piglets at birth. An online tool – the Kalinat index – was developed over a period of two years for breeders to assess the quality of a litter of piglets at
birth, which has made it possible to finely determine the ef- fect of parity and sow prolificacy on the mean birth weight. Kalinat automatically calculates the average weight of piglets at farrowing for different groups of sows as well as the Kalinat index specific to each sow. The dynamic analysis makes it possible to assess and, if necessary, change the feeding be- haviour and breeding practices of the sow(s). Taking into ac- count the Kalinat index of sows in feeding, allotment and culling strategies improves the quality of piglets and enhanc- es the hyperprolificacy of sows. The farmer is also able to identify the smallest piglets to reinforce their monitoring during the lactation period.
Advantages • A 180 gramme increase in the average birth weight of pig- lets from sows with a low Kalinat index; • An increase in the survival rate of newborn piglets; • A 2.6% reduction of losses on liveborn piglets; • A decrease in proportion of sows with a low Kalinat index from 24% to 19%; • Easy to implement and measure; • Allows breeder to follow the evolution of the quality of litters and identify sows unable to produce good litters. Based on these assumptions, variable production costs after implementation of best-practice decreased by 2.3% per pig- let, mainly due to the higher piglet production per sow per year. A decrease in fixed costs of 2.8% per piglet was also observed. As a result, the total costs were 2.4% lower.
Piglets are weighed at birth and, using the Kalinat index, a target average piglet weight is calculated to en- sure the maxi- mum survival of the piglets.
12 ▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 9, 2020
Costs and results The Kalinat tool is free for pig farmers of the Eureden cooper- ative. Only a weighing machine (about € 400) is required, and slightly more time is needed to record the weights of piglets on the online tool. It has allowed Corentin to increase produc- tion by one pig per sow per year, translating into a positive change in the gross margin of € 24,000 at farm level.
The future? The team aims to further develop the Kalinat index with as many of the cooperative’s breeders as possible. This will allow them to continually improve their understanding of the Kali- nat index variables such as the feeding of the sow, the effects of housing and genes, and breeding behaviour.
PHOTO: EUREDEN
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