Product introduction
Add weight monitoring to ESF to support sound feed strategies.Agrisys Sow Weight provides automatic weighing and data recording of individual sows in group gestation housing.
A sow’s total daily feed requirement is determined by her body weight. Typically, sow facility managers use a visual evaluation to determine a body condition score or will measure backfat thickness. These methods are easy to implement and can be helpful.
However, they focus on the smaller part of the sow’s total feed requirements. The sow’s weight is the most accurate, dependable measurement to determine the major part of the daily feed requirements.
Weights can vary more than 35 kilograms (~77 pounds) between sows that have similar backfat thickness at breeding. That difference in weight could equal nearly a 0.45-kilogram- (1-pound) difference in daily feed requirement. Overall, this could add up to a 20 percent difference in daily feed allowance and almost 45 kilograms (~100 pounds) of feed difference during gestation.
Over- or under-feeding gestating sows can impact their performance and the herd’s total feed efficiency.
So why isn’t collecting sow’s weights a management best practice?
Because most operations can’t weigh sows without causing stress to the animals or greatly increasing labor costs. Unfortunately, when basing feed allotments on back fat or body condition score alone, sow operations are only adjusting for 30 percent of the sow’s total feed requirement.
With Agrisys Sow Weight in ESF, pig producers can easily complement the information they use to determine the best feed level for a sow.