July 2016
Editor: Amy Quinn
Welcome to July’s Newsletter
Ciarán Carroll
Welcome to the July edition of
our
monthly
newsletter.
Thankfully we saw further pig
price rises in July which has
further improved the positivity in
the sector. Michael McKeon’s
Mid-Year Outlook article this month gives an
overview of where feed and pigmeat production
are likely to go over the coming months and at
the moment it’s all positive.
Education will take a central role over the coming
months. As reported in last month’s newsletter a
number of Teagasc PDD staff and pig producers
attended several Ag College Open days and the
Grange Beef Open day to promote pig production
as a career and to highlight the education options
available. This month a number of pig producers
and former students took part in a Teagasc
Education Strategic Vision stakeholder group
meeting to develop ideas for inclusion in a report
to be submitted to Teagasc Management.
Continuing the education theme, a new round of
the Level 5 QQI Pig Production Course will
commence next month at Ballyhaise and
Moorepark. This course has proved very
successful since it’s inception in 2009. Spaces on
the course are limited so contact Amy Quinn at
[email protected] or your local Specialist Pig
Development Officer to enrol if you haven’t
already done so.
In this issue:




How to manage piglets from large
litters
Mid-year outlook
Don’t make light of the need for
light
An overview of the 50th
International Congress of the
International Society of Applied
Ethology (ISAE) 2016
How to manage piglets from large litters: Should I stay or should I go now?
Keelin O’Driscoll
Litter sizes in Ireland have increased dramatically
during the past 10 years, from an average 11.2 to
12.9 born alive – an increase of 1.7 piglets per
litter. As this is the average, it means that there
are proportionally many more sows giving birth
to over 14 piglets per litter, which they may not
be able to rear well on their own. This means that
the extra piglets need to go somewhere else. One
of the aims of the Optipig project is to figure out
the best strategies for dealing with these extra
piglets. After 2 years of work, we’ve been able to
identify some of the effects of moving piglets to
other litters, and the best approach to use when
doing so.
Cross-fostering v’s nurse sow strategies
Before we discuss our findings, it’s important to
define the terms that we’re using, and draw a
distinction between ‘cross-fostering’ and ‘nurse
sow’ strategies.
Cross-fostering: Piglets are selected individually
from a litter, for a variety of reasons (too many
born alive, small piglets, lots of weight variation
in the litter etc.) and then placed onto another
sow wherever there is space for them. This sow is
often part of the same farrowing batch. For
instance, it may be another sow which has had a
few piglets taken off of her and moved
somewhere else, for similar reasons. Crossfostering can occur at any stage throughout
lactation, although usually during the first week.
A piglet may end up being cross-fostered several
times in some instances.
Nurse sow strategies: Cross-fostering forms a
component of a nurse sow strategy, in that
piglets are moved to a sow that’s not their
mother. However, the big difference is that
piglets are not moved individually to an already
established litter; rather enough piglets are
moved to form a new litter, and they are kept
together as a group after movement. The nurse
sow is not a sow within the same farrowing
batch, but one that is further into her lactation
(e.g. 1 week to 4 weeks). Her own piglets are
either weaned off, or else moved to another
nurse sow which is further again into lactation.
Piglets are selected for movement at between 12
and 24 hours of age (after they’ve had colostrum
from the mother), then a group of 12-14 are
moved simultaneously onto the nurse sow. The
nurse sow will then rear the new litter as if it
were her own.
What happens when piglets are moved?
It’s part of the normal behaviour of piglets to sort
out a teat order within the first few days of life,
and then to stay on that teat until weaning. They
do this by fighting with each other to get at
preferred teats, and after a couple of days each
piglet had their own teat. Once the order is
determined fighting dies down; from then on
nursing bouts can be devoted to feeding rather
than fighting.
The ones that move
As part of our work on nurse sow strategies we
carried out detailed behaviour observations of
what happens after piglets are moved. When 24h
old piglets are moved to a nurse sow, we
observed intense fighting during the first few
days. This was associated with piglets completely
missing nursing bouts. This ties in with research
from France that’s shown that when piglets are
moved to a new litter where there are resident
piglets, fighting increases and it’s mostly between
resident piglets and newly introduced ones.
Interestingly, we also found that when 7day old
piglets are all moved together to a new nurse
sow, there was an increase in the number of teat
changes (when piglets move from one teat to
another during nursing). This suggests that the
teat order that the piglets established when with
the first sow (before movement) is disturbed by
the transfer onto the nurse sow.
The ones that are left behind
As part of the research we also observed the
piglets that were left behind on the mother sow
after the extra ones were moved to a nurse sow.
For the experiment we used sows that had > 14
piglets born alive, and 24h after birth moved
enough piglets so that only 12 were left behind
with the mother. Here we found benefits for the
piglets that were left behind; these performed
fewer teat changes after the extra piglets were
taken away. We moved the larger piglets from
each litter, because these ones would be better
able to adjust to moving to a new sow. By the
time of weaning, the small piglets that had been
left with the mother sow had caught up with the
bigger piglets that were moved, so that their
weights were the same. This is an obvious
advantage at weaning, as it makes it is easier to
form groups of similarly sized pigs.
Cross-fostering throughout lactation
In the nurse sow studies, cross-fostering after 24h
was only carried out if there was a piglet starving
or at risk of dying. After we moved these piglets
we continued to monitor their growth. We found
that piglets that were very light at birth (in the
lightest 20%) were cross-fostered on average
about 10 days into lactation, whereas for the rest
it was about 17 days in. Average daily gain for the
very light piglets didn’t improve after crossfostering, and in fact about 30% of them died
anyway. However for piglets which were heavier
at birth, average daily gain improved after crossfostering, and only 13% died. This shows that for
piglets that are born a normal weight, but for
some reason do not thrive in early lactation,
there is a benefit to moving them to a new sow.
However, for the lighter piglets, the benefit is not
as obvious.
ADG to weaing (Kg)
Not fostered
Fostered
0.30
0.20
0.10
0.00
Study 1
Study 2
Figure 1. Effect of cross-fostering on ADG
Not fostered
Fostered
9.0
8.0
Weaning weight (Kg)
Besides the work with nurse sows, we have also
carried out two sow nutrition experiments.
During these experiments cross-fostering was
carried out as normal on the commercial farm,
and was implemented throughout lactation. In
this situation piglets weren’t necessarily crossfostered due to starvation or risk of dying, focus
was also on evening up litters and matching piglet
sizes. This has provided us with a unique
opportunity to investigate how cross-fostering
affects growth to weaning under normal
commercial practices. From the first experiment
we have birth and weaning weights from over
1800 piglets, and in total 44% fostered. In the
second, so far, over 800 piglets, with 33%
fostered.
The
fostered
piglets
were
representative of piglets that were light, mid-size,
and heavy at birth. The effects of cross-fostering
during both experiments were extremely similar.
We found that in the first study average daily gain
was reduced by 21g per day, and in the second
study by 30g per day for piglets that were crossfostered. This resulted in piglets that were crossfostered being approx. 550g lighter at weaning in
study 1, and 660g lighter in study 2, than piglets
that weren’t. However, we also found that these
differences were greatest in piglets that were the
heavy ones at birth. For light piglets, crossfostering had no effect, positive or negative, on
ADG or weaning weight.
7.0
6.0
5.0
4.0
3.0
2.0
1.0
0.0
Study 1
Study 2
Figure 2. Effect of cross-fostering on weaning
weight
Take home points
 Movement of piglets should ideally only be
carried out once, once the piglet has had
colostrum from the mother (approx. 24 h
after birth)
 Cross-fostering medium to heavy piglets is
associated with lower ADG and weaning
weights. Thus it should only be carried out if
the litter is too large for the mother to rear
herself (ideally as part of a nurse sow
strategy), or if the piglet is at risk of
starvation.
 Tagging very light piglets at birth will aid in
identifying them later on. If there’s a
small/light piglet in a litter with a tag, you
will know it was always small, so unless it
looks like it is starving there’s no benefit to
moving it. If it has no tag you will know it was
born a normal weight, so is experiencing a
growth check, and may benefit from being
moved.
Mid-Year Outlook
Michael McKeon
We are now entering the second half of 2016 and
it is an appropriate time to assess what the
outlook is from now to Christmas 2016. As
discussed in previous newsletters the profitability
of the pig industry can be determined by: Pig
Price /kg dwt. – Feed cost/kg dwt. = Margin-OverFeed (MOF). If the MOF is 50c/kg dwt. or above
the industry is profitable, and below this figure
the industry is at breakeven or loss-making. Since
the start of 2016 the industry has unfortunately
being very much in the loss-making mode. While
the MOF for this month is estimated at 56 c/kg
dwt. the average for the January-July 2016 period
is only 35c/kg or a loss of €12 per pig for every pig
sold during this period. Thankfully the future
looks a lot brighter!
Feed Cost Outlook:
In recent years the global supply and closing
stocks of wheat and barley have been very good.
The outlook for the autumn harvest is for this
supply to continue with global wheat ending
stocks-to-use ratio being maintained at a very
healthy 31%. Within this figure the ending stocks
for the main wheat exporting countries (U.S.,
Australia, Russia) are very plentiful, with the U.S.
expected to have its highest closing stock level
since 1987. Maize predictions also indicate a very
large surplus of maize in the coming season with
the closing-stock-to-use ratio estimated to
increase to 31%. Five years ago this ratio was 23%
and it has continued to improve year-by-year.
The combination of high wheat and maize closing
stocks should act as a buffer to any sudden
shocks and therefore allow the current price to
continue for these ingredients in the coming
months.
Wheat
Maize
Closing Stock To Use %
2014/15
2015/16
2016/17*
31
31
31
26
28
31
*Includes autumn 2016 harvest
The soyabean outlook is a little more problematic
due to difficulties in South America. Severe rain
hit the Argentinian crop in April three weeks
before harvest with an estimated production loss
of 2 million tons (58.5-56.5 Mt). On the brightside the US crop is looking good at present with
71% rated good to excellent compared to the 5
year average of 63%, but, August is the critical
month for crop development so we won’t start
the party just yet. China continues to increase its
annual imports with the 2016/17 volume
estimated at 87 Mt (41 Mt in 2008) which is a
27% of global production and 64% of total
soyabean exports.
A predicted reduction in
global closing stocks to 66 Mt (72 mt last year)
may result in the soyabean price being higher
than autumn 2015 but lower than the current
levels of €430/tonne.
In conclusion the outlook for compound pig feed
is for stable prices until the end of the year
provided there are no sudden shocks from
soybean – if the U.S. soyabean yields exceed
current expectations then that may put
downward pressure on post-harvest compound
feed prices.
Pig Supply Outlook
The pigmeat price for the next six months will be
based on falling European pig slaughter numbers
and continued high export volumes to China. The
mid-year EU pig census results show a continued
decline in sow numbers across most of the major
E.U. pig producers. Germany (-5.5%), Poland (14%) and Denmark (-2%) are the largest fallers.
The number of German pigs have now fallen by 1
million in 12 months (May15-May16) and this is
illustrated by the number of pigs slaughtered in
Germany, Denmark and Netherlands down a
combined 700,000 in Jan-June 2016 when
compared to 2015. The prediction is that EU pig
slaughterings will be down by 3% in the rest of
2016. This will increase upward pressure on pig
prices.
Russia
China /H. Kong
Others
Total
The EU pigmeat export market is growing at a
phenomenal rate and has hit a new record for
exports. This growth is primarily based on the
shortfall of pigs in the Chinese domestic market.
The Chinese exports have now replaced the peak
volume going to Russia in 2012 and this looks set
to continue into 2017 as the recovery of the
Chinese sow herd is slow.
The expectation based on the tightening E.U.
slaughter pig supply and strong export demand is
that the Irish pig price will continue to increase as
the year progresses especially in the fourth
quarter of 2016 when supply will be at its lowest.
Margin-Over-Feed Outlook
A margin-over-feed above 60c/kg will be required
for the reminder of the year if the 2016 average
margin is to reach the required 50c/kg and
therefore return a profit for the year.
E.U. Pigmeat Exports in Jan-April (tonnes)
2012
2013
2014
262,214
236,024
50,041
315,823
333,360
339,608
459,717
425,541
492,466
1,037,754
994,925
882,115
2015
0
377,603
586,542
964,145
2016
0
699,091
603,417
1,302,508
Don’t make light of the need for light
Michael McKeon
The main cause of autumn infertility (non-return
to heat, higher repeats etc.) is the light intensity
available to sows or more precisely the declining
duration of the light intensity. Autumn infertility
is caused by a very simple evolutionary process
whereby the shortening days indicate to the sow
that winter is approaching and therefore not a
good time to have a litter. The decreasing day
light affects the sow’s melatonin levels which
then suppresses the blood progesterone levels.
This results in a decrease in conception rate and
litter size. To avoid this reaction lighting should
be put on to a timer giving 14 hours of light per
day for the months from August to November.
Most units are aware of the importance of light
and have light timer switches in the service
house. However many units have two failures:
1. Farrowing house: While most units have
timers in the service house they ignore the
farrowing houses which is equally if not more
critically important as the sows are there for 4-5
weeks compared to 5-7 days in the service house.
Many farrowing houses also do not have
windows which makes the use of light timers
even more critical. Full lighting rather than just
pilot lights needs to be on for 14 hours. An
additional benefit of the longer lighting duration
is that sows are stimulated to produce more milk
(+17%) thereby giving higher weaning weights.
2. Light intensity: The lighting intensity should be
at a minimum of 300 lux in the service area and
farrowing house – the intensity can be checked
by your Pig Specialist Advisor. Many new units
initially have this lighting intensity but as timepasses light covers get dirty and some lights
faulty thereby reducing the lux generated. On a
number of units I measured recently the lux was
200 lux rather than the required 300 lux.
Other factors also have an influence on autumn
infertility including:
1. Get your Pig Specialist Advisor to
measure the light intensity in your
farrowing, service and dry sow house.
2. If the readings are too low (less than 300
lux) clean light covers and/or install extra
lighting
3. Use a timer switch to ensure that lighting
is on continuously for 14 hours per day
4. Lighting in the farrowing house is as
important as in the service & dry sow.
5. If you have a separate gilt house ensure
they also have 14 hours light.
6. Do not switch off main lighting in
farrowing houses as you exit the room
during the day.
7. Select extra gilts now to cover any sows
that are slow to return to heat after
weaning.
Hopefully if the above simple steps are
implemented your unit will not be one of those
suffering low conception and litter size next
January.
An overview of International Congress of the International Society of Applied
Ethology (ISAE) 2016
Amy Quinn
50th International Congress of the
International Society of Applied Ethology (ISAE)
took place from the 12th to the 15th of July in
Edinburgh, Scotland. While this congress covers a
broad range of species there is a strong focus on
the behaviour and welfare of pigs covering a
multitude of themes. This article aims to provide
a snapshot of some of the research outputs from
this congress.
The
Effect of crude protein on pig behaviour
Reduction of dietary crude protein without
negatively affecting growth is possible if
supplementary essential amino acids are added
to the diet. However there is a widely reported
strong link between damaging behaviour and an
insufficiency or imbalance in dietary protein. It is
thought that low dietary crude protein levels
could increase the occurrence of damaging
behaviour (e.g. ear and tail biting) and it is unsure
if supplementary essential amino acids could
meet the requirement to prevent such behaviour.
A study from De Heus Animal Nutrition in the
Netherlands examined the effect of dietary crude
protein level and amino acid profile on pig
behaviour. This study compared the behaviour of
pigs on a normal crude protein diet (i.e. according
to NRC recommendations) and a low (i.e. 80% of
NRC recommendation) crude protein diet with
supplementary amino acids. Results found that
pigs on the low crude protein diet showed more
ear biting (+20%), tail biting (+25%), belly nosing
(+152%), other oral manipulation directed at pen
mates (+13%), aggression (+30%) and interaction
with environmental enrichment (+61%) than pigs
on the normal crude protein diet. They concluded
that reduction of dietary protein increased the
occurrence of damaging behaviour in pigs and
therefore may negatively impact pig welfare and
should be a consideration in diet formulation.
Tail biting & environmental enrichment
Tail biting and the use of various methods of
environmental enrichment was a much discussed
topic at this year’s congress. An interesting
survey was carried out on Swedish pig farmers in
order to gauge their experience with rearing
undocked pigs. In the EU Tail docking may only be
carried out if injuries to other pigs’ tails have
occurred and where changes in the environment,
stocking density or management system have not
been effective. However in Sweden national
legislation entirely bans both tail docking and
fully slatted floors and it is a legal requirement
that pigs should have access to environmental
enrichment that is manipulable. The use of ample
straw as an environmental enrichment to prevent
tail biting is quite popular. The use of straw
however is widely seen as difficult to implement
as it is often deemed incompatible with fully
slatted floors. Of the farms studies 98% used
straw as environmental enrichment with the
average farm providing 29 g/pig/day (ranging
from 8- 85 g) in nursery and 50 g (ranging from 9225 g) in finishing farms, all with partly slatted
flooring. Straw was the only enrichment provided
in 50% of the nursery and 65% of finishing farms.
The other commonly used supplementary
material included wood shavings and toys (e.g.
balls and ropes). Problems in the manure
handling systems caused by straw was reported
in 32% of the farms, of these only 7% had
problems monthly, 25% yearly and 58%
encountered problems more seldom. Tail biting
was observed less than twice/year in 78% of
farms. The low incidence of regular straw
obstruction in manure handling systems reported
also implies that straw usage at this rate (30-50
g/pig/day) is manageable in pig production
systems.
Another study from Minnesota compared pigs
with un-docked (intact) and docked tails. The
results from this study would support general
consensus that undocked pigs carried out more
tail biting than docked pigs. Furthermore tail
biting events occurred earlier in undocked pigs
than in docked pigs. This may likely be due to the
longer tails being more visible and accessible to
other pigs.
So whilst tail docking does reduce the risk of tail
biting, the association between docking length
and tail biting is unclear. A Danish study
examined the effect of tail docking length on tail
interaction/biting. Three tail lengths were
assessed Quarter (leaving 2.9cm), Half (5.7cm)
and Three quarter (7.5cm) length tails. They
found that docking length did not affect pig
activity level or aggressive events. However
docking length did affect and amount of tail
interactions and risk of tail biting. The probability
of pigs interacting with other pigs tails was
highest in the pens with Three quarters and halflength pig tails when compared to those with
quarter length tails (i.e. shortest). It also found
that pigs with half-length tails and three quarter
length tails had a higher risk of tail biting than
pigs with the quarter length tails (i.e. shortest).
These findings verify the connection between tail
directed behaviour and tail biting with tail length.
Precision livestock farming (PLF) is rapidly
becoming a valuable tool in agriculture as it can
often provide a low-cost, reliable, automated
method of assessing different livestock issues. In
relation to tail biting outbreaks early detection of
these outbreaks and early intervention is crucial
for preventing tail injuries so perhaps PLF may
play a future role in the identification of
outbreaks. One Austrian study attempted to
establish if motion sensors measuring weaner
activity could act as a predictor for tail biting
outbreaks. This study found that motion sensors
could detect increased activity that was
associated with tail biting outbreaks. While this
method requires further validation and
refinement before its application could be used
on farm, it highlights the potential of such
methods as early detection tools on farms.
In relation to environmental enrichment type in
sows, results from a study from the University of
Pennsylvania found that sows showed clear
preferences for enrichment type, with the sows
interacting with the rope toy significantly more
than the rubber toys or woodblocks. However
more studies are needed to understand how
preferences for enrichment objects could be used
to gage the effect of this preference and
increased usage on sow welfare and
performance.
Sow welfare at transport
A Danish study on sow transport found that
transport to slaughter led to increased lameness,
and the number of wounds and scratches.
Additionally if a break in transport was included
the number of wounds increased. However the
duration of the transport only affected the
number of wounds and scratches and not
lameness.
animal and how it reacts to different situations,
illness/disease or medications. There is currently
a substantial amount of research ongoing in this
area identifying such methods, including the use
of facial and vocal expressions in pigs.
Sow maternal care and preweaning mortality
High piglet mortality in free farrowing systems is
one of the main welfare concerns with this
system. It is thought that sows with high levels of
maternal care would have lower piglet mortality
and this may be important in relation to the
understanding/reducing preweaning mortality in
free farrowing systems and potentially all
farrowing systems. However a Danish study
found that sows that had low piglet mortality did
not display any indications of “more careful”
behaviour towards their piglets than sows with
high piglet mortality. Also, activity level of the
piglet and use of locations in the pen were similar
for all litters, both those with a high and low
mortality, suggesting that activity level and
location usage did not indicate a risk of high
piglet mortality.
The use of facial clues as an indicator of an
animals emotional state has now been developed
or is being developed in many species (i.e. horses,
mice, sheep and cows). A study from Wageningen
University attempted to identify simple facial
indicators in pigs that could be associated with
simulated positive and negative experiences. This
study found that a wider openness of the eye, a
more backward angling of the ear, a higher level
of nose wrinkling and upturned corners of the
mouth are significantly associated with the
negative experiences. This study provides initial
facial indicators that reflect emotional state in
pigs. Further research is needed to expand on this
study and identify methods for its use.
Development of facial and vocal indicators of
welfare in pigs
The emotional state of an animal is linked to its
welfare (e.g. in pain, stressed, content, relaxed),
however methods to objectively measure
emotional state in animals in a large scale
intensive farming systems is particularly difficult.
Often the identification of subtle changes in
behaviour or appearance can reveal information
on the current state of an animal. Such methods
are often used on farms to identify sick animals
(e.g. arched back, low head position, lameness or
isolation). In research however the ability to
identify more subtle indicators of emotional state
could provide a valuable understanding of an
Additionally another study from the Institute of
Agricultural Sciences, Zurich, Switzerland
examined the use of vocal expressions to indicate
emotional state. This study focused on pig grunts,
as they are the most common pig call and are
produced in both negative and positive
situations. They found several reliable vocal
indicators. The peak, frequency, harmonicity and
duration of the grunts were able to be associated
with positive or negative emotional states. Both
the facial and vocal expressions therefore could
serve as very useful non-invasive research
indicators to assess negative and positive
emotions.
years with 2/3 block release days (3-4 days) over
the course of the 2 years. If you or a member of
your staff is interested in enrolling please email
[email protected] as soon as possible.
Spaces are limited and will be based on a first
come first served basis.
Arrival
The Pig Development Department would like to
welcome Susan Dudley to the department. Susan
will undertake a PhD as part of the project
working on the use of Net Energy systems in
Ireland under the supervision of researchers
Edgar Garcia Manzanilla and Peadar Lawlor,
Teagasc and Professor John O'Doherty, UCD.
Energy in Agriculture 2016
A major open day, Energy in Agriculture 2016, will
take place will take place at Gurteen Agricultural
College on Tuesday, August 23rd from 11am. The
Event will cover all aspects of energy use and
generation on the farm. This event is free to
attend. This large outdoor and indoor event
includes practical demonstrations, classroom
talks and demonstrations from exhibitors of
energy efficient and renewable technologies for
the agri-sector. It promises to be a must see
event for everybody involved in any aspect of
agriculture.
All
are
welcome.
See
www.energyinagriculture.ie for further details.
Hazardous Waste Collection
Teagasc in collaboration with the relevant
government departments and the EPA will assist
at Hazardous Waste collection centres
throughout the country to help make farms a
safer place to work on and operate. The venues
will run from 21st of October to 30th of
November throughout the country. The centres
will be manned on specific dates from 9.30am to
3.30pm. This is an ideal opportunity to manage
the hazardous waste that may accumulate on
your premises in a safe and proper manner.
Check
the
Teagasc
pig
website
(https://www.teagasc.ie/animals/pigs/publicatio
ns/) for more information or talk to your local
specialist advisor.
QQI Level 5 Pig Production Course
The QQI level 5 course in Pig Production will
commence on Friday the 26th of August in both
Teagasc Moorepark and Ballyhaise Agricultural
College. It takes place over 2 years; with students
attending the course one day per month for the 2
Dates for your Diary 2016

The Teagasc Pig Conference will take place
Tuesday the 18th (Horse & Jockey Hotel) and
Wednesday the 19th (Cavan Crystal Hotel) of
October.