Sow and litter care

Peter Fearon, former staff member of DPI&F, and Alison Spencer, DPI&F 

Summary

Successful farrowing and weaning husbandry relies on:

• hygiene
• correct feeding of sows, piglets and weaners
• observation in order to detect the unusual so that quick remedial action can be taken
• pig environmental control e.g. temperature.

Pre-farrowing

It is essential that clean sows are in a dry, clean farrowing pen before reaching day 110 of pregnancy, to allow for those farrowing at the early end of your herd's average gestation and for sows to settle in.

Ensure your worm and mange program is up-to-date, to minimise transfer of these parasites to the piglets. Also any vaccinations - common diseases that are vaccinated against are erysipelas, leptospirosis, parvovirus and E. coli . If worming in feed, deworm sows a few days beforehand and on the day of transfer to the farrowing pen scrub them with warm soapy water.

In the pen-cleaning process, organic matter which harbours bacteria should be removed. This can be achieved by thorough washing down followed by disinfection.

It is desirable that the farrowing pen contains correctly designed gates or rails to assist in protecting the baby pigs from overlaying.

Calmly move the sows into their farrowing quarters, in the cooler hours in hot weather.  A small amount of feed in the trough can assist to encourage sows to move in to this area.  Sows should be in good condition but not fat, and can be fed additional bulky fibrous feed e.g. bran, to prevent constipation.

Farrowing - stage 1

It is important to know the normal farrowing pattern so that prompt action can be taken when problems occur. Indications of normal farrowing are:

The sow may not show all these indications. Therefore gauge the onset of farrowing from the total of all the indications observed. Regularly check the sow.

Farrowing - stage 2

The birth process varies greatly between sows. The age, size and condition of the sow, the number and weight of the piglets, all contribute to variation in the duration of farrowing.

The average birth interval between piglets is approximately 16 minutes. If a sow shows signs that she still has piglets to deliver and it is longer than one hour since the last piglet was born, assistance may be necessary. Start with standing the sow and taking her for a short walk. Manually assisted delivery requires strict hygiene and care to avoid injuring the sow. It is prudent to provide a medicament for the sow following internal exploration. Your vet can advise on providing assistance and medication.

Post-farrowing

At birth: Umbilical cords usually break within a few minutes, if not, cut leaving about 10cm on the piglet and dip the end in iodine. Ensure all piglets are suckling, are warm (a heater can be placed temporarily at the rear of the sow during farrowing); in about a day, where necessary carefully clip their eye teeth and dock tails (remove about 30% only). Artificial colostrum (and milk replacers to supplement or for orphans) are available.

Iron: Oral iron should be given within 24 hours of birth and injectable iron (if oral iron not administered) must be given before three days of age.

Fostering : It is often desirable to transfer piglets from one sow with a large litter to another with a smaller litter. If possible, the piglets should be fostered within 24 hours of birth to a sow that farrowed later. Transfer the piglets after they have received their mother's colostrum and before the foster mother's spare teats dry off.

Creep area: The creep area must be warm (24 to 29°C - high end of range for newly born), dry and draught-free. Draughts can easily reduce the effective temperature by 3 to 5°C. The sow needs a cooler temperature (about 16-26° depending on floor type, level of skin wetness etc), and fans and drippers can assist in hot weather. Drippers may be used (over the slatted portion of the pen) rather than spray systems e.g. on the shoulders of the sow, to prevent wetting too much of the sow's udder, the piglets or the pen. The different temperature zones help reduce overlays.

Supply a source of artificial heat, usually at least for the first week of life, especially in winter, maybe only at night in hot weather. After the first critical week, artificial heat may not be essential, provided pigs have access to a hover, kennel or straw bedding. There are various methods of providing warmth. Note that overhead heaters may cause convectional draughts over the piglets, thus if using this type it is essential that a hover or kennel is provided.

Watch the behaviour of the pigs - if they are huddled in a heap, they are too cold, if they are sprawled well apart, then they are too hot.

Creep food: Tasty creep food may be introduced to piglets from seven days of age. Small amounts are offered at first, either on the floor or in a shallow dish in the creep area close to the sow's head. This encourages the piglets to copy the sow and eat when she eats. Replace fouled or stale food several times daily: the left-overs are fed to the sow, helping to boost her energy and protein intake. Use a small trough of self-feeder when creep food consumption increases (usually at about three weeks of age).Recent work has suggested that when weaning at less than three weeks of age, there is no advantage in feeding a creep diet. The weaned pigs in the trials adjusted to the change in diet as well as those fed creep food.

Research work has suggested that when weaning at less than three weeks of age, there is no advantage in feeding a creep diet. The weaned pigs in the trials adjusted to the change in diet as well as those fed creep food.
When weaning at three to four weeks of age, a creep diet containing predominantly animal (e.g. milk powder) rather than vegetable protein, needs to be offered.

A source of fresh water (other than the sow's) should be available to all piglets from an early age. Water is especially important since the sow's milk yield is eventually insufficient to balance their increasing need for dry food intake.

Keep the pen clean and dry. Electrolytes and possibly medication may be required if the piglets scour.

Sow. In summary, feed at least twice a day and get them to stand up for each feed (encourages drinking and urinating). As a guide: miss first feed or give a few handfuls of feed if the sow 'asks', start with 1 kg/each of the first three feeds (12, 24 and 36 hrs post farrow), increasing by 250 g/feed (may continue adding fibre such as bran for the first few days) until the sow is eating 6 to 8 kg/day (unless only a few piglets; more depending on her condition and number of piglets) by day 5 (to 14, depends on your herd) to provide for the milk supply. Sows with their first litter generally do not have as high an intake and benefit from a more nutrient concentrated diet, or a feed supplement (such as full fat soybean meal). For ideas on feeding techniques to increase intake, especially for first litter sows and in warmer weather, see the Note Improving the reproductive efficiency of first litter sows . Provide plenty of water.

Check the sow is eating. Remove any stale, uneaten feed each day or after each feed in hot weather - it may indicate a sick sow. Check their health and treat.

Weaning the litter

Piglets can be successfully weaned at three weeks of age. Many herds wean between three and four weeks and some wean at five weeks old. The younger the age of weaning, the greater the care needed post-weaning. Some producers foster pigs of less than 5 kg, when due to be weaned, onto good milking sows. Beware of fostering back poor-doers that may transfer diseases to younger piglets.

The most important aspect of weaning is to recognise and relieve the stresses that piglets may undergo. The main stresses are:

• being left on their own after losing the company of their mother

• being mixed with strange piglets and being moved to unfamiliar surroundings

• changing from a mostly liquid diet to solids.

Reducing stress: Some herds allow litters to mixing well before weaning, e.g. when the youngest litter in a batch is seven to ten days old. At weaning the piglets appear not to fight as much provided when they are penned with these familiar pigs.

At weaning, where possible, remove the sow from the piglets, leaving them in the farrowing pens for a few days before moving them to weaner pens.

Hygiene: Thoroughly clean and disinfect weaning pens and feeders between groups of weaners. This is easier when each weaner area is all-in all-out.

Feeding: Always use self-feeders or troughs instead of floor feeding, as the food is less likely to become contaminated with dung and urine.

Feed small amounts often for about the first five days, so enough trough space will be needed then for all to eat at the same time. The feed amount and the frequency will vary depending on weaning age and herd history of scour incidence. Once settled, feed ad lib , but so it is always fresh.

Fresh water must be readily available to weaner pigs at all times.  They need to be able to find and use the water source quickly: to help them do this the same type of drinker is often used in both farrowing and weaning pens. Water is very, very important. Food intake increases with water intake, flow rate needs to be about 500 ml/minute. Provide one drinker for eight pigs, with a minimum of two drinkers per pen.

The change from a mostly liquid to mostly solid food predisposes the weaner to scours. The pig's gut at this age does not have the digestive agents and bacteria in sufficient quantities to fully cope with solid food. Undigested material then provides a food source for disease producing bacteria to multiply.

Therefore it is very important that piglets are eating solid food before they are weaned. If scouring or loose dung or oedema disease is a problem after weaning, very little food should be offered for 24 hours. After this food can be reintroduced gradually until the piglets are eating to appetite seven to ten days after weaning.

A further method of reducing food stress at weaning is to add about 10% milk powder and/or, in some herds, 20% millrun or pollard, to the weaner's food for the first three days. The amount of milk powder, millrun or pollard is then gradually reduced to nil by seven to ten days.

Weaning the sow

Scrub sows with warm soapy water and if necessary treat for mange before introduction to the dry sow quarters.

Place newly weaned sows within smell, sight and sound of a sexually mature boar, and within easy moving access for contact with the boar, for stimulation of oestrus.

Add a dewormer to the sow's first feed after weaning if necessary. Keep sows on a fairly high level of food (minimum 34 MJ/day) with plenty of clean water. First litter sows should be fed to appetite.

Further information

Other DPI&F Notes:

Design and management considerations for piggery hygiene
Improving the reproductive efficiency of first litter sows (also contains information about older sows)
Sow condition scoring
Sarcoptic mange in pigs
Fostering piglets
Piglet anaemia
Piglet scours
Batch farrowing
Worm species in pigs and their control.

DPI&F Business Information Centre from 8 am to 6 pm weekdays: Phone 13 25 23 (Queensland residents), non Queensland residents phone +61 7 3404 6999; e-mail callweb@dpi.qld.gov.au

DPI&F's web site www.dpi.qld.gov.au

As well as being published on DPI&F's pig industry web site at www.dpi.qld.gov.au/pigs/, this DPI&F Note will be published on the DPI&F PrimeNotes CDROM  and will be published on  DPI&F's national Pig Technotes CD.

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Information contained in this publication is provided as general advice only. For application to specific circumstances, professional advice should be sought. The Department of Primary Industries and Fisheries has taken all reasonable steps to ensure the information in this publication is accurate at the time of publication. Readers should ensure that they make appropriate inquiries to determine whether new information is available on the particular subject matter.

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Last revised 15 April 2005