Kobondo Agriculture Networks

 Facts you need to know about pigs 1. Pigs are very clean animals. 2. Pigs can't sweat. 3. Pigs are smarter than your dog. 4. Mother pigs sing to their babies. 5. Pigs love belly rubs. 6. Pigs have an excellent sense of direction. 7. Pig dream and like to sleep node-to-nose. 8. pigs have excellent memories. 9. Pigs suffer immensely on factory farms. 10. Pigs are deserving of good lives.

 Fostering Management* Cross fostering: Make sure all staff are aware of your farm fostering policy. Sometimes practices change for the better but can revert back if your cover staff are not aware of the changes. Wherever possible leave piglets with their own mothers to avoid disruption of the litter suckling patterns; even big piglets looking secure and strong will experience growth checks if fostered, especially if moved around frequently. Even up numbers of piglets per litter:  Matching the number of piglets to the number of functioning teats allows each piglet to have easy access to the colostrum produced after farrowing. This improves piglet survival rates and increases the chance of piglets achieving their potential growth rates. Helping low birth weight piglets:  It is a great disadvantage for small piglets to have to compete with larger littermates. Litters of small piglets should be created from all the ‘smalls’ born in a given farrowing day. Foster-litters of sm...

Heifer raising is the second largest expenditure in a farm after the milking herd, with feed costs takes the largest share. The aim should be to rear heifers to reach the desired body weight early so that they initiate puberty, establish pregnancy, and calve easily. When feeding heifers, the farmer should aim to: i) Reduce interval between weaning and first lactation. This will increase number of calvings per lifetime (more of lactations) and lead to faster genetic improvement. ii) Minimise mortality. iii) Achieve a growth rate of 0.5-0.7 kg/d. iv) Achieve first calving at 22 to 24 months of age v) Feeding management must ensure that heifers reach target live weights for breeding at 14-16 months of age. Combining both adequate development and early age at calving has several advantages: i) It decreases the risk of calving difficulty. ii) It improves lifetime milk production (days in lactation and milk production per day in lactation). iii) It reduces rearing costs (feed, labour, etc.);...