Farms.com Home   News

Using Models to Enhance Sow Productivity

Modern swine production demands precision in feeding high-prolific sows to ensure both longevity and optimal performance. Over the past decade, advances in sow genetics and feeding systems have reinforced the need for accurate nutritional programs that prevent overfeeding or underfeeding individual sows. Advanced sow nutritional and management models offer swine nutritionists reliable, data-driven insights to support long-term productivity. When provided with accurate information on sow genotype, productivity, feed programs, and barn environmental data, these models have proven effective in helping producers refine feeding strategies, optimize production, and reduce feed costs. Even minor improvements in feeding precision can result in substantial economic benefits.

The role of models in sow nutrition
Advanced analysis and predictive modelling capabilities can assist swine nutritionists in designing sow feeding programs by integrating complex data on genetics, production history, and environmental conditions. Overfeeding or underfeeding sows can negatively affect their body condition and reproductive performance, ultimately shortening their productive lifespan. Nutritional models, such as the advanced NutriOpt Sow Model, help farmers fine-tune feeding strategies, ensuring that each sow receives the right nutrients at the right time, avoiding these challenges.

Click here to see more...

Trending Video

Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Video: Cleaning Sheep Barns & Setting Up Chutes

Indoor sheep farming in winter at pre-lambing time requires that, at Ewetopia Farms, we need to clean out the barns and manure in order to keep the sheep pens clean, dry and fresh for the pregnant ewes to stay healthy while indoors in confinement. In today’s vlog, we put fresh bedding into all of the barns and we remove manure from the first groups of ewes due to lamb so that they are all ready for lambs being born in the next few days. Also, in preparation for lambing, we moved one of the sorting chutes to the Coveralls with the replacement ewe lambs. This allows us to do sorting and vaccines more easily with them while the barnyard is snow covered and hard to move sheep safely around in. Additionally, it frees up space for the second groups of pregnant ewes where the chute was initially.