A garden sprayer helps service management

It’s good to catch up with pig producers and staff now the autumn season of Pig Club meetings is underway.

We’re always on the look out for practical ideas on how to move the industry nearer to the ‘two-tonne sow’ target and Garth Pig Club North invited Easey breeder producer Neil Newlove to highlight a few things he’s been doing recently.

Neil (pictured) runs a 730- sow outdoor breeding herd on a batch system and keeps all the dry sows in tents on concrete.
· They’ve found the best bedding is wood chips with rape straw (not chopped) on top. It is really absorbent and the laying areas are nice and dry.
· At service, they use a garden sprayer to spray water on all the vulvas followed by a wipe down with a disinfectant wipe. Using the sprayer has proven much more effective in removing dirt
· Stocking density makes a big difference: the unit saw a drop in farrowing rate from 90%+ to around 85% when a tent order got delayed and the stocking density in the dry sow tents went up
· Neil built his own farrowing arcs. The total cost was £220 per arc (as apposed to a purchased model for £400-£500)

As for the other end of the pork supply chain, the Club got all the details on the new BPEX pork marketing campaign to get consumers to make the Pork Promise.