Care and Management Practices

Care and Management Practices

Breeding care

• Pigs are highly prolific in nature and two farrowings in a year should be planned by adopting optimal management conditions.
• For every 10 sows one boar must be maintained for maximum fertility.
• Breed the animals when it is in peak heat period (i.e. 12 to 24 hours of heat).

Care during Pregnancy

• Give special attention to pregnant sows one week before farrowing by providing adequate space, feed, water etc.
• The sows as well as farrowing pens should be disinfected 3-4 days before the expected date of farrowing and the sows should be placed in the farrowing pen after bedding it properly.
• During pregnancy, feeding must be aimed at bringing the sow to right body condition score (ideal BCS is 3), neither thin nor too fatty, enabling it to be able to start a very demanding lactation period after the pregnancy.
• Feeding should also aim at proper growth of the foetuses as high birth weight is important for survival being the light-weight piglets having poor viability.

Assessment of BCS

Care of newborn

• The piglets are removed as they are farrowed and kept warm in creep space until farrowing is complete.
• Each piglet is cleaned of all mucous to ensure that the breathing passage is clear
• The navel card should be tied 2.5 cm away from the navel, remaining portion is removed hygienically and stumps are painted with iodine.
• Piglets should be nursed after birth. They nurse 8-10 times in a day.
• Piglets are born with 4 pairs of sharp teeth (2 pairs on each jaw) which may injure udder or teats. Hence, clip these teeth soon after birth.
• Piglet anemia (Thumps): Since sows milk is deficient in iron and copper, piglets suffer from serious deficiency resulting in anemia. Affected piglets become weak, dyspeptic, and have distressed breathing.
• This disease is also called thumps because of their difficulty in breathing.
• To prevent piglets anemia, udder of sow may be swabbed daily with a saturated solution of ferrous sulfate for 4-6 weeks so that piglets can get these minerals while suckling the milk. Another effective method is injection of iron - dextran compounds available commercially.
• Take care of new born piglets by providing guard rails.
• Treat / disinfect the navel cord with tincture of iodine as soon as it is cut with a sharp knife.
• Feed on mothers’ milk for first 6-8 weeks along with creep feed.
• Protect the piglets against extreme weather conditions, particularly during the first two months.
• Needle teeth should be clipped shortly after birth.
• Vaccinate the piglets as per recommended vaccination schedule.
• Supplementation of Iron to prevent piglet anemia is necessary.
• The piglets meant for sale as breeder stock must be reared properly.
• Male piglets not selected for breeding should be castrated preferably at the age of 3-4 weeks which will prevent the boar odour in the cooked meat. Thus, it enables production of quality meat.
• Additional feed requirements of lactating sow must be ensured for proper nursing of all the piglets born.

Nursing mother with piglets

Care and management of sow:

• Care and management of sows are very essential since they are retained in the herd mainly for breeding.
• Good management and feeding will minimize problems related to breeding.
• Sows should be looked after with particular care so that the piglets are delivered normally and nursed properly.

Farrowing Sow and Litter:

• Clean and disinfect the farrowing pen with a solution of 2 % of phenyl lotion and keep it vacant for a week.
• The pregnant female may be dewormed 2-3 weeks before farrowing and prior to admitting into the farrowing pen. Spray with external parasiticide (1% solution of malathion/cythion, butox. 0.05 %). Scrub the under surface, sides, interdigital space and udder to remove dirt, eggs of parasites, disease germs etc. with soap and water just before moving into the farrowing pen.
• Move the clean animal to the clean pen 10 days before farrowing.
• Provide light bedding of chopped straw 2-3 days before farrowing.
• Appearance of milk in teats when pressed indicates the approach of farrowing time.
• Attend the farrowing throughout. It may last upto 24 hours.
• Wipe the piglets clean with towel/straw. Disinfect the naval cord with tincture of iodine. Normal healthy piglets suckle teats within 10-30 minutes. Help small piglets to suckle.
• Placenta, dead piglets, soiled bedding etc. may be removed and buried in time with least delay. The placenta will be expelled generally within a short while.
• Provide 50 mg iron (Imferon 1 ml) on the second day intra-muscularly to prevent piglet anaemia. Oral administration of iron solution (1 g Ferrous sulphate in 25 ml of water) 1 ml per piglet once a week can be tried. A second injection may be given at 5 weeks of age.
• Keep the farrowing pen warm, dry and clean.
• Needle teeth may be removed carefully.

The time taken for expulsion of litter varies from 1 hour to 5 hours. The interval between the birth of the first and that of successive piglets vary from a few minutes to 3 hours. About 30 per cent of piglets are usually born in posterior presentation. Generally placenta is shed only after all the piglings are born. Expulsion of placenta is usually within 3 hours after expulsion of foetus. Piglets start suckling within 10-15 minutes after birth. Artificial heat may be provided by using an infrared lamp / ordinary electric bulb during cold and rainy season to avoid death due to chilling.

Breeding management:

• The sows come to heat once in about 21 days. Good feeding and management induces heat (estrus) makes breeding easy, and larger litter size. Along with grains and fish meal, skim milk or butter milk may be given 2-3 weeks prior to breeding to allow a body weight gain of 200-300 gm/day.
• The average gestation period of sow is about 112-115 days the normal litter size is 8-10 piglets. Older sows as larger litter size with high birth weight.

Care at farrowing time:

• The pregnant sow should be shifted to farrowing pen 3-4 days before farrowing to avoid disturbances and to settle down in new Surroundings. The forrowing pen should be dry, well ventilated and lighted. Bedding material should be provided in the farrowing pen.
• Prior to farrowing time, the ration of sow should be reduced to half and should contain laxative ingredient like wheat bran. The sow should be left undisturbed at farrowing and may be helped during emergencies. Remove piglets from a nervous sow and allowed to suckle under supervision.
• As soon as the piglets are born, they are dried with a cloth and placed in warm enclosure pig brooder.
• Brooder sows should be given well-balanced rations. Feeding should be started in small quantities of concentrate mixtures along with laxatives like wheat bran.

Care and management of sucking sows:

• A sow gives about 150-200 kg of milk during 8 weeks suckling period. Sows milk is more concentrated than cows milk and hence, sow require more feed.
• Allow 1.5kg of feed for the sow and add 0.5 kg of feed per piglet to a maximum of 5-6 kg of total ration.
• Plenty of Lucerne, hay and succulent fodder may be provided. A few days prior to weaning, the quantity of feed is gradually reduced to restrict milk flow and dry the udder.

Care and management of boar:

• The boar should be maintained in a separate pen. They should neither be overfed nor underfed, since both will affect its breeding capacity. It should be fleshy, and thrifty but not too fatty.
• The feed requirements include both the demands for maintenance and reproduction. During off-season, the boar should be given plenty of grasses and legume hay and 2 kg of concentrate mixture. An additional 0.5 kg of concentrate may be given 2 weeks prior to breeding season.
• Boars should not be used for breeding earlier than 8 months of age. A young boar can be used for 15-20 sows in a season and older ones may be used for about 25-45 sows.
• A boar can be allowed to serve before being fed. Not more than one service per day is allowed during breeding season. Older sows may be used for breeding season. Also, older sows may be used for breeding with younger boars.
• Boar should have free access to water and boar pen is kept clean and dry. Dampness should be avoided.
• The boar should be scrubbed and washed daily and kept clean. Trimming of boar's feet periodically will prevent lameness in boars.
• The bolt cutters can be used to remove tusks of boars to avoid injuries to sows and attendants.
• Newly purchased boars should be kept separately for 2-3 weeks to avoid risk of introducing any disease into the farm.

Creep feeding:

• Piglets take dry feed at 2-3 weeks. Provision of additional nutrients at this time is essential to have maximum growth and development. Creep feed is also called as pig starter for vigorous growth the thriftiness, sows milk alone is not sufficient for piglets. Creep feed contains 25-30% Crude Protein.
• Creep is a device by which piglets are allowed access to the concentrate mixture. It may be arranged of the corner of farrowing pen. Creep feed is fed from 14-56 days. The composition is as follows.

• Weaning of piglets: Usually weaning is done at 7-8 weeks. The sow should be separated from the piglets for a few hours each day to prevent stress of weaning and its feed is reduced gradually.
• Orphan piglets: Can be raised either with a foster sow or the use of milk replacer
• Nutrition: The nutritional requirements of swine vary with sex, age and physiological status of the animal. According to the nutritional requirements, swine can be classified into 11 distinct groups as follows.

Young pigs:

1. Pre starter pigs (2-5 kg)
2. Starter pigs (5-11 kg)
3. Grower pigs (11-23 kg)

Weaning to market pigs:

• Growing and finishing hogs (23-57kg)
• Finishing hogs (57-91 kg)

Adult males:

1. Boars

Adult females:

• Gilts
• Unbred sows
• Pregnant sows
• Sows at the time of parturition
• Lactating sows

Manure disposal

The dry solid dung may be collected morning and evening and stored in the dung shed. The liquid part of urine and washings may be taken to settling tanks.

Integration

Pigs can be effectively integrated to a biogas plant for meeting the cooking /lighting demand of the farmers. It can also be integrated to agriculture and fish culture thereby increasing the overall economic efficiency of the system. The pig dung is good organic manure in dried form or as compost.

Approximate daily manure production of pigs

Culling

Culling is one of the important aspects of management. The unproductive and under productive animals in the farm should immediately be culled from the herd. Pigs suffering from such diseases which is in curable or takes longer time to cure should also be culled. Excess boars may be castrated or culled. Following conditions may warrant for culling of pig:

• Sows having vices, such as biting of piglets, carelessness for young piglet should be culled.
• Piglets having defects like Artesia ani, Prolapse, Hernia, and Blindness etc. should be culled.
• Piglets having poor stunted growth should be culled.
• Gilts having delayed sexual maturity, infertile, failure to conceive, longer farrowing interval, consistently smaller litter size at birth and at weaning should be culled.
• Sows completing fourth farrowing should be culled by maintaining replacement.
• Boars having maximum weight and unable to breed should be culled with proper replacement.
• Sows that are difficult to get in-pig (pregnant) which only manage to rear small litters should be sold.
• Boars which are in fertile or moderately in fertile should be culled.
• Old age sows and boars should be culled.
• Poor performers should be culled immediately.

Teeth Trimming

It is usually necessary to trim the piglets' teeth to prevent them biting the udder. The piglets are born with needle sharp teeth which may injure the sow's udder. The sow is unable to allow piglets for suckling milk and the piglets get starved. Only the points of the teeth should be removed on the same day of birth. While trimming the teeth the tongue of the piglets should be rolled back to avoid injuring it.

Management of Anaemia or Iron Deficiency

Anaemia is caused by iron deficiency. This iron is needed for the formation of haemoglobin. This is an important problem, especially for young piglets kept indoors. At birth, the piglets have about 50mg of iron in their body. They receive additional 1-2 mg/day from milk while they need 7mg during the first week. It is obvious that the quantity of iron decreases rapidly and if not supplemented. The piglets become very pale a few weeks after birth and their growth slows down. This can be prevented by:

Oral Iron Supplement:

Oral Iron Supplement is an iron supplement for newborns. The manufacturing of Oral Iron Supplement uses a special chelated process that bonds the available iron, thus allowing the piglet's system to safely absorb the iron in order to raise and maintain adequate blood iron levels. The ideal method of administering Oral Iron Supplement to the newborn piglet is to rub the liquid iron onto the udder of sow. As the piglets move from teat to teat they will slowly absorb the iron thus, reducing the chances of any toxic reaction due to excessive amounts of iron. No injections are required when using Oral Iron Supplement thereby eliminating chance of toxic reaction due to iron dextran.

• Oral iron-paste containing iron is put in the mouth of piglet within 24 hours of birth.
• Iron Injection: Injectiron preparation to the piglet(on3and13 days after birth) and iron injection (1 and 2 ml respectively) IM preferably at neck muscles.

Tail Cutting/ docking

Cut the tip of the tail within 4-7days.This prevents tail chewing, which can lead to infections. A piece of chain can be hung down from the ceiling for the piglets to chew.

Weaning

Successful early weaning of pigs requires skill and attention Weaning is a great challenge to the young pig. Knowledge of the nutrient requirements, health status and growth patterns for modern breeds of early-weaned pigs continue to develop. Early weaning of piglets at 14-21 days increases sow productivity through the potential increase in the number of litters per sow per year.

Castration

• All male piglets in the farm meant for fattening should be castrated. Castrated males grow faster and fat deposition is slightly higher than the uncastrated one.
• Castrated males are devoid of boar tan. Male piglets are castrated to prevent their meat from boar taint.
• Castration also makes them more manageable when they become sexually mature.
• Castration should be done in the first two weeks of a piglet's life preferably 10 days before or after the date of weaning to avoid extra stress at weaning.
• The animals should be fit and healthy. If this is not the case it is better to postpone the operation.
• Two people are needed when castrating a piglet.