Eye on Europe

North German researchers have developed a key with 12 different shades for weaner feces. Used in conjunction with another key comparing manure consistency, the new system offers immediate warning of approaching disease.

by NORMAN DUNN

It took researchers from Kiel University and the nearby Futterkamp agricultural training and research unit five breeding cycles from the Futterkamp sow herd and a total of 480 piglets to develop a colour code for piglet feces and a feces-consistency key for piglets.

Offering a thicker consistency replacer in the farrowing pen leads to more milk intake by piglets. With larger litters, this is also proving to give suckling sows a break 

by NORMAN DUNN

Good growth with suckling litters and healthy weaner weights are important targets. But what about the sow? Fast-growing piglets in today’s large litters demand a lot of milk. And no matter how much feed the sow manages, much of the litter weight gain usually comes right off her back.

In Europe, it’s EuroTier show time again and here’s a sampling of the most interesting concepts launched in Hanover, Germany, Nov.16-19. There were 1,800 exhibitors at the event and an estimated 120,000 visitors

by NORMAN DUNN

For farms that have taken the loose housing road for their dry sows and don’t keep them in stalls until pregnancy is confirmed, scanning later on to ensure they are in-pig can easily turn into a porcine rodeo show. But now an automatic scanner has been developed that quietly checks if the sow is pregnant whilst she is feeding.

The growth point in the European swine production features new sow herds of 800 and more. But there’s still plenty of room for the smaller family farm, as this example from Germany shows

by NORMAN DUNN

The 200-sow, farrow-to-finish unit run by the Hüppes near Hörstel in German Westphalia really deserves the name “family farm.”

All the sow work – AI, farrowing, weaning, feeding and high-pressure washing – is carried out by farmer Franz-Joseph Hüppe on his own. And, after weaning and growing-on to 20-25 kilograms, most of the Hüppe pigs are driven straight across the farmyard into the 1,500-place feeding barn run by daughter Sabine. She works alone, too, with the planned output of 120-kilogram pigs topping 5,000 per year.

This farrowing pen design reduces sow confinement at farrowing to just three or four days and improves performance with no mortality penalty.

by NORMAN DUNN

A new farrowing pen design claims to increase profits per hog by combining the advantages of free farrowing systems with those of the conventional farrowing crate.

The 360° Freedom Farrower, so-called because it gives space for the sow to turn in a full circle, has been developed by Midland Pig Farms in England, a company with seven production units and a total of 3,500 Yorkshire x Landrace sows.

An innovative project has found that leaving the skin on bacon sides during wet-curing cuts salt content by 25 per cent – and reduces fat, too

by NORMAN DUNN

Bacon with 25 per cent less salt than the average product – and 20 per cent less fat, too – has been developed by a “food innovation team” from Abertay University in Scotland with backing from government, the meat processing sector and the farming industry.

After years of monitoring piglet behaviour, a Dutch researcher has found that when there’s no curve in the tail, there’s trouble ahead.

by NORMAN DUNN 

One scientist who’s spent more time than most observing piglet tails – and whether they’re curly, in continuous movement, straight along the back or down between the legs – is Johan Zonderland.

He’s a member of the Animal Sciences Group at Wageningen University in the Netherlands, and he and his team have discovered that the way a piglet holds its tail indicates whether it’s bored or not. And (as every hog farmer knows) when a piglet is bored, that’s when fighting and biting starts in the pen.

Danish producers are enjoying an export boom to the German market. But poor economic returns, strict environmental legislation and high taxes are pushing the trend to larger units

by NORMAN DUNN

Squeezed by the recession and with increasingly tighter environmental restraints to production, Danish swine farmers are considering a number of strategies for future survival. Options range from specializing in piglet production, creating a worldwide export market for Danish hybrid sows or doing what the Danes have always done well – staying with bacon and pork production at home.

While most German producers favour the 21-day method, others find that 23.3 days offer the best results. Meanwhile, in Sweden the norm is nearer to five weeks

by NORMAN DUNN

Most swine breeders in Germany accept that weaning at three weeks brings an average of one or even two extra hogs per sow each year. But nowadays bigger litters – and therefore lighter piglets – mean increasing production costs for supporting 21-day weaning.

When a single computer controls all swine production

Germany’s first fully-computerized hog feeding unit expects higher returns from more precise management through automatic integration of weighing, sorting, feeding and ventilation systems

by NORMAN DUNN

Complete computer control and monitoring of all processes in the hog feeding barn has been introduced on one of Germany’s leading agricultural research stations, Haus Düsse. All individual computers controlling ventilation, feeding, automatic weighing and sorting and recording are linked to an overall management computer, which crunches the resultant numbers from a 900-place feeding barn.