Batch Farrowing: Labor, Pig Flow and Other Things to Consider

Batch farrowing can be an effective method of improving the health and increasing the growth and performance of commercial pigs by filling and emptying an entire nursery site at one time. The size of farms and scale of production in a large vertically-integrated system provides constraints that make a batch farrowing system difficult to implement. Among the constraints are variations in breeding/farrowing performance, effective use of labor and effective use of facilities. The health advantages of a batch farrowing system can be quickly overwhelmed by a decrease in breeding numbers, an increase in return sows or a decrease in farrowing numbers. Any combination of these situations would entail a longer fill-time in the nursery with pigs of a greater age range. In a batch farrowing system, the needs for labor are concentrated on the weeks where the sow farm crew is breeding, farrowing or weaning. On a large sow farm, it would be a challenge to meet all the labor demands in the hours available during the “busy” weeks and then effectively employ a full farm crew during the “non-busy” weeks. There are a few situations where batch farrowing could be used in a vertically-integrated system. One would be in a farrow to finish system, where variation in production and labor can be shifted from one phase to another, within the same site, without comprising pig flow or labor needs. Another situation would be in a system were four sow farms of similar size, location and production would each farrow/wean one week out the month to fill a nursery site. Any variation in production or allocation of labor needs can be shifted between the sow farms depending on pig flow needs, available space and needed labor. While batch farrowing may be a viable means of improving pig performance, care must be taken to ensure that facilities and labor can be effectively utilized to implement the system.