Knowing the sows age - TIPS ON PIGS

Using the year the sows enter in production for the sow's identification number.

Goal

Knowing easily the sows' age by numbering them with the last number of the year in which they enter production. The idea comes from the farm Granja Lumbierres, in A Coruña, Spain.

Explanation

With the improvement in the adaption plans and the incorportation of increasingly heavier gilts, the sows last for longer on the farm. Also, as all the animals are bigger, it is hard to know how old a sow is by simply looking at her.

The idea consists in starting to renumber starting with number 1, using as the first figure the last number of the year. It is something similar to a hotel: we all know that room 23 will probably be on the second floor.

On a farm with some 1,000 sows, with a replacement rate of some 40%, the sow number 6284 entered production in year 2006, very probably in September.

The gilts enter the boxes at 7 months old, their first heat is detected and they are inseminated at the following heat, being more than 8 months old. When their first heat it detected they are ear-tagged and they are assigned their number. Sow number 8024 is one of the gilts that entered production at the beginning of year 2008.