Weekly Production Planning and Turnover Scheduling Methods for Large-Scale Pig Farms
On a farm, beyond scientific and reasonable feeding methods, safe and feasible vaccination programs, routine disinfection and so on, sow breeding has now entered the era of artificial insemination. So how do you carry out breeding work in a reasonable and orderly way, and how do you rotate sows in a scientific and orderly manner to make the most of their productivity? For both large-scale pig farms and newly started pig farms, the weekly rhythm of sow breeding is both a production safeguard in the pig industry and the key to breeding on a pig farm.
Production rhythm means carrying out production on a weekly basis. On the surface, production rhythm is easy to understand, but if 100, 200, 300 or 500 base sows are in normal production, how many should be bred each week, how many litters should be farrowed each year, and on average how many sows should be farrowing each week? How should these questions be calculated? Now let us take a herd of 500 sows as an example to calculate the weekly breeding numbers, the number of litters farrowed each year, and the average number of sows that should be farrowing each week.
I. Number of piglets born each year, each month and each week
1. Based on 500 sows, we set the conception rate per estrus, farrowing index, etc. of the 500 sows at 85% (the 15% includes returns to estrus, abortions, failure to come into estrus within one cycle, etc.).
2. Based on a 114-day gestation period, a 28-day lactation period and 4 days for estrus and mating, these three figures add up to 146 days. 365÷146=2.5, and this 2.5 means one sow can produce 2.5 litters per year.
3. The annual target is based on 12 months.
4. One month is calculated as 4 weeks.
5. Each litter per sow is calculated as 10 healthy weaned piglets.
The number of piglets that 500 sows should produce in one year is: 500×85%×2.5×10＝10625 piglets.
The number of piglets that 500 sows should produce in one month is: 500×85%×2.5×10÷12＝885 piglets.
The number of piglets that 500 sows should produce in one week is: 500×85%×2.5×10÷12÷4＝221 piglets.
II. Number of matings each year, each month and each week
The number of matings calculated from the theoretical data for 500 sows is:
1. The farrowing index, etc. is set at 85%.
2. Calculated as 10 healthy piglets.
3. The annual target is based on 12 months.
4. One month is calculated as 4 weeks.
The number of matings for 500 sows in one year is: 10625÷85%÷10＝1250 matings (where 10625 represents the number of piglets that 500 sows should produce in one year).
The number of matings for 500 sows in one month is: 10625÷85%÷10÷12＝104 matings.
The number of matings for 500 sows in one week is: 10625÷85%÷10÷12÷4＝26 matings.
III. Farrowing crates needed for 500 sows and the replacement rate for gilts
1. According to the weekly production plan, the farrowing crates for 500 sows are installed in 6 units, with a total of 156 farrowing crates across the 6 units, so each unit has 26 farrowing crates installed. Of the 6 units, 4 units house lactating sows, 1 unit houses sows due to farrow, and one unit is an empty pen being disinfected.
2. Based on the farrowing crates, with 26 crates per unit across 6 units and a calculated farrowing rate of 85%, the number of matings per week is 26, and nearly 24 sows are due to farrow each week. (Why install 26 farrowing crates, and what are the extra 2 crates for? First, for sick pigs, whether sows or piglets, which are placed in the remaining crates. Second, to prevent individual crates from being damaged and causing sows to be unable to farrow normally.)
3. Based on the 26 matings per week, and theoretically calculated at an average of 2.5 litters per sow per year over 52 weeks per year, the total number of productive sows that can be kept in the herd is 540, including gilts. The theoretical calculation is: (26×52)÷2.5＝540 sows.
4. With a total herd of 540 productive sows and an annual replacement rate of 15%, the number of sows replaced each year is 81, that is, 81÷12≈7, so the number of gilts kept per week must not be less than 7.
5. Based on breeding data from artificial insemination and a boar-to-sow ratio of 1:100, 540 sows in the herd require 7 boars for mating, including 1 young boar.
IV. Nursery crates needed for 500 sows
Nursery crates can be installed according to the number of farrowing rooms, which allows an all-in, all-out system to be formed. Like the farrowing rooms, there are also 6 units with 26 nursery crates per unit. Each nursery crate should have an area of at least 10-12 square meters, and every effort should be made to give each pig 1 square meter of activity space. Pigs transferred from the farrowing room to the nursery are moved into pens according to a one-to-one matching of pen numbers, which can prevent or reduce the spread of disease. Pigs that are too weak or too small are selected out and raised in the last two extra nursery crates. Calculated theoretically in this way, the crate space of one unit of nursery pens requires 260 square meters.
V. Stanchions and gestation pens needed for 500 sows
Calculated on the basis of 540 sows (including gilts), and according to practical operation with 1 square meter per sow, only 2 units of stanchions are needed, with each unit requiring 80 stalls, and the gestation house requires 4 units, with each unit requiring 25 stalls, each stall housing 4 sows. The 25 stalls require 100 square meters, while the size of the walkways and the pig-driving passages can be designed by each farm according to its own space (early pregnancy in the stanchions, later pregnancy in the gestation house).
(Source: Pig Farming Classroom; Author: Xue Jingwen)
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