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Issues of EfficiencyWhen starting a piggery make sure sufficient time is allowed for cast to be generated. At best it takes6 months to grow a pig from weaning to bacon weight and much longer of lower quality rations are used.An improved genetic sow should be 120kg before she is mated for the first time. She will probably want to get mated before this. Mating her before she is mature does a lot of damage to her long term performance.On improved rations it will still take at least 9 months to reach this weight.Pregnancy last 4 monthsTherefore the time line to get returns from pig farming could look like thisTime to grow Sow to mating weight9 monthsPregnancy4 monthsTime to grow piglets to sale weight6 monthsTotal 19 monthsFunds to provide feed labour and other services must be identified for this period at the outset of the project. (see feed costs below.Measures of efficiencyFarrowing IndexThe farrowing index measures the number of litters a sow has in 1 year. (12 month period). This is important because a farmer will have to feed a sow for the entire year whether she has 1, 1.5 or 2 litters per year. The cost of feeding a sow is passed onto the price of each piglet when it is born. The extra cost of feeding a non productive sow is significant.The farrowing index is made up of 3 factors, Pregnancy, time to weaning and delay to next mating.There is nothing a farmer can do about the length of pregnancy. In a sow this is set at 16 weeks. The first factor that a farmer directly controls is the time to weaning. This can range from 2 weeks to 12 weeks. There is a direct relationship between earlier weaning and the quality of feed provided to piglets both while they are on the mother (pre weaning) and after they have been removed from “mother’s milk”. Also there is a direct link to the feeding of the sow who must be in good body condition when she farrows and fed well during her milking period if she is to produce enough milk for the piglets she is caring for. This means feeding her 2.5 times as much good feed as when she is dry.This period immediately post weaning is called “weaning shock” for good reason. Weaning shock sees a health growing piglet becoming unthrifty, losing its bloom, losing weight and possibly dying. This is a loss of all the effort, the potential, put into the sow through pregnancy and rearing her litter. Weanng shock is not just caused by the loss of the sows milk the whole process of weaning is stressful for a piglet that is often moved to a new pen, has to fight for its position in the feeding trough and is often mixed with other pigs it has not met before. It is not recommended that weaning at 2 weeks is practiced in Samoa. Farms that do practice 2 week weaning feed a ration to piglets that are weaned which includes over 30% milk powder. 4 week weaning is possible but this will require the feeding of a top quality creep weaner ration (see feed section below) The ration would include fresh grated coconut, grated cooked cassava, and meat meal. Weaning after 4 weeks begins to introduce inefficiencies in the farrowing index. However a farmer must decide when to wean based on the following questionsAre the piglets big enough to wean and survive without the sows milk.Does the farm have a top quality ration to carry the piglets through the weaning shock period?Are the piglets already eating this ration well.Is the farmer prepared to use milk powder for the first week after weaning to ensure the weaners have the best chance to grow.If the answer to any of these questions is “No” a difficult decision has to be made. There is a better chance of the piglets surviving if they remain on the sow but each extra week is adding inefficiencies into the farrowing index. It is recommended to err on the side of caution and not wean the piglets too early.The second factor a farmer controls in the efficiency of the farrowing index is the time taken to re mating.Around the world, weaning takes place on a Thursday. Why?The natural cycles of a sow work like this. When as sow is weaned her body recognizes that there is no longer a need to produce milk. She then has to decide what to do next. If she is in good condition she will decide to come on heat ready for mating. This hormone cycle takes just 5 days. Therefore a farmer does not have to worry about mating at weekends but sows should come on heat early in the next week. Therefore the time from weaning to mating can be just 1 week.It is important, to ensure the sow get a clear hormonal message, that weaning takes place at one time and that all piglets are removed. If a staggered mating is practiced, the sows internal mechanisms get confused between whether she is still milking or whether she should be getting pregnant. This will delay her returning to heat. Sows cycle once every three weeks. If a mating is missed it is three weeks before a sow will be ready to mate again. If a sow is in poor body condition she will not be able to get pregnant before she has rebuild body condition.From the above factors we can now calculate different farrowing indicesMost EfficientBetter EfficiencyPoor EfficiencyPregnancy weeks161616Time to weaning 468Time to mating1713Total weeks per cycle213137Weeks in a year525252Litters per year2.51.71.4Why is this importantDuring the course of 1 year a farmer will have to feed a sows every day, s/he will have to spend time preparing food, fencing paddocks repairing buildings or washing pens. This is likely to be the same amount of effort whether a sow has 1.4 litters per year or 2.5 litters per year (this assumes a base line feed level for all pigs) Assuming a sow has the same number (8 piglets per litter) each time she farrows, the number of piglets each sow produces is below.888Piglets per sow per year2013.611.2Feed & Overhead Costs Per Sow$1830$1830$1830Cost Per Piglet$91$135$163Saving per piglet$44$72Farms that do not achieve production efficiencies will not be able to generate cash to pay cash costs and will therefore remain in the subsistence sector. ................
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