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Reasons for culling sows - instrument to improve herd management
Project
Project code: II-1-F-50-2007; ZV-2
Contract period: 01.06.2007
- 30.09.2008
Budget: 36,415 Euro
Purpose of research: Applied research
The project Reasons for culling sows - instrument to improve herd management was supported of the Ministry of Agriculture of Nordrhein-Westfalen running from 2007-06-01 until 2008-09-30. The thesis was that improving management is easier if you know exactly the reasons why your sows have to be culled. The new recording system had 9 main chapters with about 90 single points. Besides the main reason farmers could use up to 3 sub-reasons. 46 pig-farms in North Rhine Westphalia with about 10.000 sows (average was 210 sows per farm) used a new code-system of culling reasons. Nearly 2.500 sows were recorded. On average 92 % were slaughtered, 6 % of them were found dead, 2 % were euthanized. The farms differed extremely from 0 to 17 % of mortality or euthanizing-rate. More than the half of the records had at least one sub-reason. With 27 % age was the first main reason, then fertility (25 %), performance (16 %) and legs (9 %). Combination of main reason with sub-reasons and the detailed information could be useful for farmers, veterinarians and advisors to analyze herd status and quality of management. In a working group based on representatives of practice, scientific, consulting, veterinary, breeding and economics, results were discussed and the systematically recording of removal reasons was demanded. As result of the project a working group started to implement an improved standard code for removal reasons together with the several herd-program companies.
Section overview
Subjects
- Agricultural Technology Animal Production
