To start the day off I had to hand feed nearly 250 sows in gestation. One of our feed bins went empty yesterday so we had to scoop (one scoop at a time) feed into the gestation stalls for the sows. This took us a good half hour between 6 of us to feed all the sows that the empty feed bin effected. None-the-less they all got fed!
I was once again on the wean line for the early part of the morning. I assisted with handing piglets to the people who were holding them for their shots. I then had to "escort" the piglets to the nursery where they will be housed until the truck comes tomorrow to pick them up. I also had two sows that entered into the farrowing rooms last Thurs/Fri. (I was at the Pork Expo/ Friday was my day off) that are included in my "random sampling" for my project. These sows I "flagged" last week (see previous post for more info) so I would know when they entered into farrowing rooms. I placed colored feed cards on their feeders so that they would stick out from the rest so that I could record their feed intake for part of my project. I also got to assist with farrowing/ monitor rounds today. This is one of my favorite parts of the job! I love to walk around and watch sows give birth, assist the piglets by drying them off and welcoming into the "chilly" world, and help them get on their feet towards the sow's udders. I also enjoy sleaving sows, aiding in labor when needed. I am very excited to start getting some data in once my random sample sows start farrowing!
Today I got to learn where ALL of the fire extinguishers are located throughout the facility. They had pulled them all down yesterday because we needed to have them inspected (done yearly) this morning. I got the privilege of returning them to their rightful places (this took up a fairly large chunk of my morning... nearly 1 1/2 hours because I could only carry 2 at a time!)
After lunch I helped weigh up the wean piglets for tomorrow. We have to weigh "behind" piglets to make sure that they are large enough for "sale" to finishers. Our scale is attached to a cart and we are able to weigh fairly effortlessly... accept for today our scale wasn't charged over the weekend! We ended up weighing every small piglet by hand with a hand scale (took fairly long!). I also got to give day 1 shots to two litters to demonstrate to a visiting student from Sweden. I got to explain why we give Exceed and Iron shots at day 1, why we dock tails, why we use farrowing and gestation stalls, and much more about our facilities. The student from Sweden said that a large operation for them is around 200 Sows... which we house in a single aisle in our gestation buildings! They also use pens after the sows farrow and wean piglets around 20 lbs instead of ~12 like we do. They also use bedding and house gestation sows together. They don't cut tails, give different shots, and the overall operation is much different than ours! It was very interesting to discuss the differences between our operations.
Tomorrow morning I have to head out to the Main Office for a meeting at 8AM to present what I learned at the World Pork Expo. I hope to learn even more from the other students presentations.
<3 Roz
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