Projects
National Swine Reproduction Troubleshooting and Management Guide
Work on the National Swine Reproduction Troubleshooting and Management Guide has begun. A group of nearly 20 researchers at the major state agricultural universities, USDA-ARS and related businesses have gathered together to build a guide that will assist producers in finding solutions for reproduction issues on their farm. This includes:
•Low farrowing rate
•Low litter size born live
•Decreased reproductive performance insecond litter
•High pre-weaning mortality
•Late cycling weaned sows
•Anestrus weaned sows
•High sow non-productive days
•Non-cycling replacement gilts
•Weak signs of estrus in replacement gilts
•Marginally effective heat-check boars
•Low sow longevity
•Failed semen quality evaluations in young replacement boars
•Semen quality problems in mature boars/ stud
•Increased uterine prolapse frequency
•Increased frequency of abortion
•Increased vulva discharge frequency
This guide is not just an encyclopedia of reproduction-related problems. It’s a hands-on manual for producers, farm managers and workers. This book will offer a "decision tree," letting readers select a specific problem they are experiencing in their operation. The "decision tree" then guides readers through factors to investigate and evaluate to reach a solution. This book is being entirely written, produced and peer-reviewed by researchers at major state agricultural universities and business professionals, making it science-based and reliable.
Rob Knox, associate professor of animal science at the University of Illinois, says this book will positively impact producers.
"The guide will help educate producers seek and search for solutions to common problems encountered in the breeding herd," Knox says. "The troubleshooting guide will take producers through a sequence of steps as they input information about their own farm, and include data about the relevant problem. It will serve as an important tool that can provide insight to solutions for improving breeding herd management and performance."
The National Swine Reproduction Troubleshooting and Management Guide will be available in 2012.
Sow Lifetime Productivity Guide
The Sow Lifetime Productivity Guide is a another project USPCE has worked on. It is a producer guide on increasing lifetime productivity in swine breeding herd females. The units in the guide will be:
- Managing Replacement Gilts
- Managing the Young Sow
- Managing the Mature Sow
- Housing Options for the Swine Breeding Herd
- Addressing the Sow after Productive Lifetime is completed (salvage, euthanasia, mortality disposal methods)
The ADSA’s 13th Annual Discover Conference on Sow Productive Lifetime served as a starting point for the Sow Lifetime Productivity Management Guide. The goal of this project is to gather known research in the area of sow lifetime productivity and assemble a guide for producers to use in their breeding herds.
Work is being completed on the Selecting and Managing the Gilt Replacement Herd unit, with sections including selection, nutrition, health, and management of the young female. This unit will be completed and available to the pork industry by the end of December 2008.
Following the completion of the Selecting and Managing the Gilt Replacement Herd, development work will continue on the P1-P2 and the mature sow section of the guide.