Lactational oestrus - 8th January 2010
Many farms see lactational oestrus from December to April. There is no evidence to state why this should be, but anecdotally units see this issue over winter rather than summer. It may be that the sows are on a high level of nutrition and light levels are improving. There are no practical solutions to this problem but managing the piglets is key to not letting this problem affect your productivity and keeping sows satisfied with correct feeding.
If sows come into oestrus in the
farrowing paddocks the piglets must be managed to prevent any
losses:
- If lactation is disrupted during
1-3 weeks of age, piglets may be at risk of starvation and should be fostered
onto a weaned sow
- If the disruption to lactation
occurs after three weeks piglets will probably forage for some of mums food,
but a more appropriate creep feed should be offered to maintain weaning
weight
For more advice on this topic you
can download a factsheet here: http://www.bpex.org.uk/Article.aspx?ID="296439