Litters of 15 or more piglets sounds good until you only wean 10. Mark Knauer reviews production practices and survival data, focusing on improving piglet birth weights to ensure better live-ability.
Source: National Hog Farmer, August 9, 2018. Link.
Piglet birth weight has clear associations with production throughput and efficiency. An increase of one piglet per litter is associated with a 30 to 50 gram reduction in average piglet birth weight (Opschoor et al., 2010). Hence, issues with low birth weight piglets have increased over the past decade.
INSIGHTS: Knauer’s conclusions are impactful and represent opportunities to address animal stewardship sensitivities relative to piglet loss. It is a good article to use when interacting with swine producers regardless of herd size. More is not always better.