3. Attending the Sows

Evaluating the sow is always part of any farrowing unit’s procedures, and this needs to be done constantly. Health issues may occur during farrowing, which is sometimes inevitable. However, farrowing operations must be guided by straightforward protocols to treat sick animals and minimize disease issues such as fever, anorexia, vulval discharges, and mammary gland disorders. Tummaruk et al. (2013) points out that sick animals have a lower appetite, suggesting that feed intake is a sign of how well sows are performing. Thus, daily reports from electronic feeding systems, like Gestal smart feeders, are an essential tool to help managers identify when sows are not exhibiting their regular feeding pattern, indicating a possible health issue.

4. Early Care of Piglets

Piglets also have to be well–managed to maximize farrowing unit success. The hours after birth are critical in the pigs’ life, and early assistance can improve piglet survivability. Piglet early care procedures differ from farm to farm. However, the farm protocols must be well designed and executed. As Devillers et al. (2011) and Muns et al. (2015) point out, colostrum intake in the first twenty-four hours of life is a determinant for piglet survival. Techniques such as split nursing can be used to make sure all piglets have access to colostrum. Any movement of piglets needs to be performed as quickly as possible, before teat order is established.

5. Preparing Farrowing Units

Farrowing operations start days before sows enter the units. Farrowing facilities, or at least the pens, must be disinfected and cleansed of any organic matter 5 to 7 days before a new group of sows gets settled. Equipment such as hot boxes, lamps, and mats also need to be correctly cleaned, dried, and disinfected.

Another essential measure regarding setting up the units is environment control. Farrowing sows and piglets have different warming demands: the ideal temperature range for sows is between 64ºF to 73ºF and for the piglets 86ºF to 89.6ºF (Caldara et al. 2014). There are many strategies for mitigating or minimizing heat stress effects during farrowing. Sophisticated feeders, like the Gestal Quattro, also manage the piglets’ environments daily and reduces electricity demands by adjusting heat curves based on the farrowing date.

Other tips worthy of mentioning are: ensure the farrowing units are calm and quiet places, that all supplements are ready to use, the equipment is working, and ventilation is adjusted properly based on age of pigs.

Moreover, well-designed facilities with high-quality equipment are essential for improving farrowing performance. All smart feeders from Gestal, for example, are engineered with strong, durable products. Gestal feeders are also easy to implement and can be adapted to any building type or size.  

MANAGING ON-SITE EMPLOYEES

Many swine producers and managers agree that modern pig production is less about pigs and more about people management. That is true when it is noted that the social interactions between employees answer many questions as to how the farrowing units are performing.

6. Number of Employees per Unit

Although there are many recommendations regarding the number of employees required in the farrowing units, it’s worth highlighting that it can vary from farm to farm. That variation occurs because the number of employees per unit is closely related to farm production goals and metrics. If the farrowing units’ primary purposes are a greater number of pigs weaned/sow/year and lower pre-weaning mortality, it will demand more labor. Furthermore, the level of technology in the farm also influences employees’ numbers and tasks (Piñeiro et al., 2019).

For example, using automatic feeders for farrowing can increase labor efficiency by promoting actions based on data. The Gestal smart feeding reports help employees find the sows that need assistance with precision: they can check on a computer or smartphone if any of the sows didn’t eat during a specific period and then go straight to those individuals. Besides, the reports can also eliminate manual tasks, such as hand feeding and getting every sow up, which provides more time for employees to handle other activities. The main goal of these technologies is to help good employees go a lot further.

7. Optimized Work Schedules

Many activities are going on simultaneously in the farrowing units, including sow and piglet feeding management, animal health monitoring and treatment, and routine operations such as vaccination programs, facility maintenance, cleaning, and disinfection. With all these tasks to handle, Martel et al. (2008) suggest that employees’ life becomes easier when clear and compelling schedules guide them and their workload is well distributed. Maintaining clear work routines leads to precise results. The same is true regarding the number of employees: each farm has unique demands and goals, and work schedules must fit the farm’s needs.

Practical tips for improving work schedules are: register daily and weekly work routines, review and change the goals regularly, and save time in the farm’s operations for possible emergencies (disease treatment, repairs, etc.).

8. Effective Communication on the Farm

As farms become larger, managing people becomes more complex because greater numbers of employees lead to communication issues. However, there are some tips for improving team communication. One of them is valuable and constructive feedback, thereby inspiring employees to do their best by providing a deeper understanding of their responsibilities and expectations.

Another is implementing visual communications in the farrowing units, as many people in the U.S. workforce do not have English as their first language (Durst et al., 2018). Like the smart feeders from Gestal, some equipment optimizes farm communication, as issues in sow feed intake are indicated by different easily interpreted colors.

9. Training Opportunities

Staff training is critical when managers want to keep employees motivated, and there are many ways to do that. When a new employee is hired, onboarding is crucial for understanding the farrowing procedures and the farm work routine. On the other hand, continuing education opportunities are very welcome for long-term employees, helping them improve and develop their careers. Besides, as technology levels gradually increase in the farrowing units, fewer employees are needed in manual heavy labor, such as feeding sows by hand (Piñeiro et al., 2019). Thus, the farmworkers can optimize the farrowing operations and develop critical skills by analyzing data recorded from the electronic feeders and building accurate individual sow feeding strategies. User-friendly platforms for data analysis accompany Gestal smart-feeders, which helps employees with their decision-making process.

10. Measuring and Increasing Labor Quality

Every farrowing unit is unique and has individual demands that will influence how employees are managed. Given this fact, sow farm managers need to find metrics to evaluate how their team is performing. Production metrics, such as farrowing rate and pre-weaning mortality, can be an indicator of labor quality. However, human-based metrics are also necessary.

Moreover, improving labor quality is not an easy task, since many US farms face employee turnover rates of over 100% per year (Marchand et al., 2008). People also don’t want to work every weekend and more than 40 hours per week. The biggest tip here is precise: make employees’ lives easier and better. Bringing new technologies onto the farm will most definitely help in this regard.

Technology is already part of a pig farm’s daily routines and can also help increase retention rates on the field and encourage young people to apply for jobs in the swine industry. Many of the changes in farm systems have been led by the next generation of swine producers, which now see the great opportunities and benefits in pig production that are provided by technology adoption.

CONCLUSIONS

Sow producers and managers know many of the hot topics presented in this article firsthand. However, when these multiple operations in the farrowing units are offered as guidelines, it can help them figure out critical points in farrowing management that require some adjustment. By locating these points, it is possible to set priorities and make more assertive changes in the system.

Some of improvements can positively impact many of the above-mentioned topics. For example, Gestal offers several options for electronic feeders that help managers to optimize overall farrowing numbers. Their smart feeders improve sow performance by offering data-driven reports, which permit attending to specific sows’ demands. Those reports also indicate possible health issues when sows are not following their regular feeding pattern.

Besides, smart feeders like Gestal also make employees’ lives better and easier, as they minimize heavy and manual labor and include user-friendly and straightforward software with real-time monitoring.

Finally, successful management in the farrowing units is only possible when the decision-making is based on data acquisition and analysis instead of observational and abstract attitudes.

Technology brings powerful tools that positively impact sows and piglets’ performance and improve the quality of life of the people on the farm.

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