The prominent pig production company, Midland Pig Producers (MPP), has reviewed its sow nutrition focus after the subject was highlighted, in relation to piglet quality, at a recent BPEX regional producer event.
“We’ve recently made an improvement from 11 to 12 piglets weaned per litter and the event prompted us to check with the nutritionist that our sows’ nutrition is correct for the amount of piglets we are now weaning,” said MPP’s Joe Blackstone.
He also said that the BPEX discussion on “making sure sow weight loss during lactation is no more than 7%” was a good reminder to weigh sows as they enter and leave the farrowing house, allowing producers to monitor weight and adjust diets if needed.
“We’ve done that at times in the past but will now try to do it regularly,” said Mr Blackstone, who also placed high value on the delivery of physical and financial figures by meeting speaker, John Richardson.
“It gave us a view of how our unit compares to the rest of the industry, as well as benchmarking against other Midland Pig units,” said Mr Blackstone.