Thirty PSY - The People Factor
By Don Lidster, DNL Farms Ltd.
When people talk about achieving 30 pigs per sow per year (psy), they typically focus on proper artificial insemination techniques or good farrowing room procedures. But I recently heard one producer claim it’s all in heat detection. Roughly paraphrased, he said, “Anybody can put a pipette in the right hole and attach a sac of semen to it. The big question has to be answered first. Is the sow or gilt in standing heat?” If sows aren’t bred for maximum conception, no amount of fancy work in the farrowing room will give you 30 psy.
We have all seen statistics on the benefits of second matings. This producer said they run larger numbers of sows per location so their few excellent heat detectors could watch over more sows. In his experience, farms claiming 100% multiple matings typically have technicians who are either just checking off the form or actually going to the trouble (and waste of time and semen) to breed that percentage of sows and gilts that aren’t standing for a second mating. Perhaps we do get too focussed on just getting the second mating rather than getting a good second mating - which really means doing a good job of heat detection.
Can heat detection skills be improved or is heat detection just a skill you either “have” or “don't have”? I think they can be improved. In the late '70s we spent time in some British “sow houses” with a traditional “stockman” who had probably learned by following his father around, then practiced the trade himself over many sows and many years. When I asked where the boar was when he was checking for returns, his terse reply was “any decent stockman can detect heat better than a boar.”
So how did he do it?
He combined knowledge with excellent observation skills, practice, and experience. In those days, sows in gestation stalls were typically hand fed from a feed cart. There was a period of high activity and excitement while sows waited their turn to be fed. The activity tended to intensify any vulva redness and swelling and visible discharges in sows returning to heat. It alerted the stockman to look for other heat signs like depressed appetite or bar biting; to check for a standing response to back pressure; to check more closely for discharges; to run her with a boar; to flag her. These vulva changes were readily apparent immediately after feeding. For a knowledgeable, observant stockperson, they were a useful tool for identifying sows returning to estrous.
So is there a place for a boar in heat detection? Absolutely. But it isn’t the boar’s job to find sows in heat. The sight, sound, and smell of the boar stimulate estrous sows to give a stronger display of heat, which helps the stockperson find them. It is the stockperson’s job to understand all the subtleties of sows’ estrous and to identify sows in heat. These skills and knowledge can be learned and are essential to achieving 30 psy.
Had I been in the business of staff training in the 70’s, the British gentleman could have provided a valuable video of heat detection skills showing specifically what he was looking for; the cues that alerted him to sows in heat; a model for others to follow.
When we focus on a given skill in our barns, numbers related to that skill improve. Good heat detection can be learned. Go out and model people who do it well.
DNL Farms Ltd. is a consulting company from White Fox Saskatchewan that focuses on staff training. After completing their degrees in Agriculture, brief careers in industry and 20 years in the pig business, the principals, Don & Nancy Lidster have produced numerous training videos for their clientele as well as done extensive work with low stress pig handling. They can be contacted at dnlfarms@xplornet.com or (306) 276-5761.
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