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Maxwell Foods, Inc.
Breeding Herd Education Series
2008-2009
Timely, relevant & convenient learning
A family owned company
producing food products:
Thank you for participating in SowBridge 2008-09.
Pork
80,000 sows producing approximately 2 million
market animals per year.
To start the presentation, advance one slide by pressing enter
or the down or right arrow key.
Turkey World’s largest turkey producer with the resent
acquisition of Butterball (over 1 Billion pounds sold annually).
The Butterball purchase was in partnership with Smithfield
Foods.
To see any of the rest of the materials on this CD, click on
the title of the resource.
Beef 1400 cows producing calves that are preconditioned
and then sent to western feedlots to be finished for consumption.
Goldsboro11-08.pdf
Confinement Sow Gestation and Boar Housing.pdf
Economics of gestation housing.pdf
Gestation Sow Housing Options Levis Sow Housing Forum 2007.pdf
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Temple Grandin
•  Invited to see Maxwell system for
animal welfare friendly program for
Smithfield customer
•  Temple’s approval important to Maxwell
and industry
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Temple’s Report
Temple Approved
•  “They are setting the standard for large
scale pork production. The entire
industry can use them as a model.”
•  Having the proper genetics and animal
husbandry practices were also imported
to the success of the pen gestation
system, she noted.
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Weaning into stalls for 35 days
Gestation pens
Farrowing stalls
Square footage
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35 day Stall benefits
AI
•  Individual feeding of sows to return to pre-farrow
body condition.
•  Avoid injury from sow’s “riding” during heat.
•  AI safety for both sow and stockperson.
•  Embryo attachment & pregnancy check.
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Weaning in Stall
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Gestation
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Gestation
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Pen Benefits
•  Better water Intake (less urinary infections, lower
death rate)
•  Nose to tail contact to stabilize subpopulations
•  Can increase population to stabilize health
•  Catching recycles
•  Less maintenance to floors & gates
•  Easier to move sows in groups
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Floors
Floors and pens
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8’ x 10’ pen (some 5’ x 10’ pens)
5 sows 16 sq ft
6 gilts 13 sq ft
1 nipple water drop per 2 pens
Slight slope on solid area
Less concrete and pen maintenance
Raised walkway
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Mixing Sows
Keys to mixing
•  Some fighting when 1st mixed
•  Mix similar size and conditioned
females
•  Proper genetics
•  Feed increase last 30 days of
pregnancy
•  Do not remix last 30 days
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Pregnancy Checking
Riding in pens
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Shots in Pen
Results
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Performance
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Summary
May-July 2008 (80,000 sows)
•  PSY
25.94
•  Farrowing rate 87.8%
•  Sow mortality 5.3%
•  Pre-wean mortality 9.4%
•  Piglet weaning wt. 13.75 lbs.
•  Born alive 10.9
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Results similar to stalls
More acceptable to general public
No harder to manage
More simple than other pen systems
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