own selection index, describing its production value. The ge- netic factors, which are weighted differently in this calcula- tion, are the feed utilisation, daily gain, leg condition and the number of live pigs per litter at day 5 post-farrowing.
Hygiene is of top importance at the breeding farm. Everything is spotless. Gestating sows in groups receive straw from a robot moving along the ceiling.
Own breeding goals Apart from these superior breeding goals, Poulsen defined four key goals for himself: • Longevity: All sows will be held in large groups with ear tag–based feeding. Poulsen and Svensmark have been pay- ing attention for years to sows having decent legwork and therefore spending a long time on-farm. • Farm hygiene: The sow farm has an unrestricted red Spe- cific Pathogen Free (SPF) status. Poulsen explains, “That is the highest health status given in the Danish SPF system. It means that the breeding facility is free from certain danger- ous pathogens like mycoplasma as well as Porcine Reproduc- tive and Respiratory Syndrome virus.” To maintain the status, on top of the SPF hygiene rules, he has added UV light sources at the air inlets. • Customer focus: Poulsen and Svensmark are always avail- able for a chat with their customers and try to comply with their customers’ wishes. That is why gilts are offered at differ- ent ages and with different vaccination statuses. • Gut health: Poulsen says, “Apart from the correct vaccina- tion management, we would like to build up a balanced gut flora using feed management. In that process, raw materials, feed hygiene in the liquid feeding equipment as well as the feed structure play a big role.” With farm benchmarking and conversations with other sow breeders from his network, last summer the breeder had the feeling that – especially in the farrowing room – improve- ments could be made. Poulsen says, “One has to keep in mind that we work with purebred sows and not only with F1 sows.” Still, with 29.3 weaned piglets/sow/year he was not satisfied. A pre-weaning mortality of 20% was too high for him. “At the time we had huge problems with milk provision for newborn piglets. That is why we decided to install a fully au- tomatic milk cup system,” says Svensmark. It proved to be a step in the right direction, as with new technology and a high quality milk replacer the average weaning weight could be increased by around 700 grammes. In order to achieve that, fewer natural nurse sows were needed than was the case in the past.
Bird’s eye view of the gestation room, where the sows are kept in group housing. 20
▶PIG PROGRESS | Volume 36, No. 9, 2020
Fermented seaweed Another starting point was a novel protein strategy in sow nutrition. In October 2019 the original raw protein compo- nents sunflower and sugar beets were replaced by the feed additive EP199, made by European Protein. This protein component is designed for sows and consists of fermented seaweed and rapeseed. The breeding farm mixes the ingredient through the sow rations at 4% for gestating
PHOTO: DORTHEASMINDE
PHOTO: DORTHEASMINDE
PHOTO: DORTHEASMINDE
Page 1 |
Page 2 |
Page 3 |
Page 4 |
Page 5 |
Page 6 |
Page 7 |
Page 8 |
Page 9 |
Page 10 |
Page 11 |
Page 12 |
Page 13 |
Page 14 |
Page 15 |
Page 16 |
Page 17 |
Page 18 |
Page 19 |
Page 20 |
Page 21 |
Page 22 |
Page 23 |
Page 24 |
Page 25 |
Page 26 |
Page 27 |
Page 28 |
Page 29 |
Page 30 |
Page 31 |
Page 32 |
Page 33 |
Page 34 |
Page 35 |
Page 36
