|
‘Geneticist’s nightmare’ produces 25.5 pigs per sow
Sam Walton of Pig World visits Mark Alton’s successfully self-sufficient unit
Mark Alton at Deighton, near Wetherby in Yorkshire, is an example to many producers of how to be self-sufficient. Progeny from 450 sows to Woodheads at 78 dead with above 90 percent in the top grade, means a fair bit of work on the unit which is partly slatted, partly solid, and slatted and some straw also.
I visited him ten years ago when he had just built a Pig Environment big-pen finisher house with entry doors into each pen from one side instead of at the end.
This is now used for weaners in an unusual way in as much as half of each pen is fastened off and a tarpaulin roof put over the lying area with two infra-red lights, until the piglets have finished their creep feeding regime and gone onto their own on-farm-mixed weaner ration.
At this point the dividing partition is removed and they have the whole area, and extra troughs come into use.
About 30 months ago, Mark decided he would start his own breeding programme for replacement gilts. For six months he used a Meidam boar on the whole herd and then crossed selected breeding sows from that, mating with a Large White.
The next six months he used all Large Whites and used the Meidam on their progeny in a criss-cross system which would normally be a geneticist’s nightmare, but it has worked well, producing 25.5 pigs per sow. The commercial sows from the criss-cross are all mated to a Vantage FC boar, and very shapely they are too.
He buys ex-AI stud boars from ACMC which may have worked only a short time in the stud, so they come ready to carry on working as AI boars.
Mark speaks highly of his staff. Under the management of Edward Brockenbrow, who runs a tight ship, the unit really hums. Edward’s twin brother Henry manages the farrowing site on a three-week 60-sow batch system, weaning at 24-26 days. He is responsible for the recording to decide which sows should be bred from. He seems to know every sow individually. They have enormous litters and very heavy pigs at weaning without the sow losing too much condition.
A-One supplies all the creeps plus the supplements for the growers and finishers. It supplies four rations. Optivite advises on the dry sow and lactating rations and supplies the supplements for those.
OWN MAINTENANCE
The arable side of the farm provides the cereals. They have built their own bulk feed trailer and they also do all their own maintenance and buildings. There are five men, but then there is feed-mixing to do, slurry to take away, yards to be mucked out, and the maintenance.
In reality maintenance means more than just maintenance. For instance a former gilt rearing shed is being transformed into more finisher accommodation. The staff have erected the new concrete panel walls on top of a row of blocks laid by the local builder. They will alter the roof and put in fans and will then concrete the shed out and fit all the concrete pen divisions and gates.
Wherever possible, work is done by farm staff and as it is not an easy unit to run, a bit labour intensive in some area, I think that speaks volumes for the staff. They quite enjoy doing the maintenance, it is something different. Mark asked me not to mention any names in case they are poached! He is happy, they are happy, and it shows.
Pre-weaning mortality is just under three percent and that from 12.1 born alive. This is all down to Henry who seems to have a knack with sows and litters. He loves his job. Such people as Edward and Henry need to be recognised and would easily gain the necessary Pig Industry Professional Register points to demonstrate their professional status.
SELECTED GILTS
A former finisher shed, or part of it, has been re-jigged into a gilt house for feeding Regumate which is given to all selected gilts. They have four feeding stalls without any gates in each pen with a scrape passage at the back. They are then moved after service into bigger pens in the same shed.
Gilts are earmarked at birth and selected at around 60 kilos when they go into straw yards. An older vasectomised boar is run with these gilts as they approach puberty. Some get served but the boars are removed before the Regumate regime starts.
Edward says that having the boar contact helps to bring them into season and to check if there are any non-heat gilts, so they can be got away before they are too heavy.
The gilt shed has just been extended by Enviropig, which has used plastic panelling for the penning. This is another example of how plastic has revolutionised piggeries.
After service, sows stay in open-backed crates with a rear dunging area until they are five weeks in pig when they go into the deep – and I mean deep – straw yards and are fed by Collinson dump feeders. They stay in their 60 group all the way through which helps at farrowing when they know the whole yard is the next lot through.
There seems to be little need to spend a fortune on drugs. Piglets receive a jab for coccidiosis at four days and a pneumonia jab at weaning. Sows have Erisorb Plus at weaning and Gletvax 6 at two weeks before farrowing. Gilts are given a parvo jab two weeks before service and no problems are encountered in later life. To assist at farrowing, all sows are given Planate to induce farrowing but not the gilts as they do not have a farrowing pattern for them and it is easy to inject them too early causing stillborn piglets. Dedication and good stockmanship is very evident here in what is openly admitted to be not an easy to work unit – but it is very effective.
Article by Sam Walton in Pig World, March 2007
<< Back to News
|
