The Rural Voice, 1986-06, Page 9Anita and Paul Dietrich tailored their 10 -acre farm to suit the needs of
their 110 -sow farrow to finish operation and their approximately
4,000 hen layer operation.
and effort on a fostering system
that has helped her reduce the
number of runts in the herd. For
example, if a sow has 12 pigs, eight
healthy and four of lesser quality,
Anita will foster the would-be
runts on another sow. This saves
several extra pigs at each farrowing
cycle. "We don't have near the
number of runts," she explains.
The only drawback is that it
reduces the number of litters per
year.
Anita will gather piglets from
the larger litters and make an extra
litter. She will choose a sow that is
ready for weaning (with piglets
four to five weeks old), tranquilize
her, and give her a litter of seven-
day -old piglets. Then she picks
two- or three -day-old piglets and
gives them to the sow she took the
seven -day-old piglets from.
She and Paul believe that the
cost of the mechanical surrogate
sow now on the market is pro-
hibitive for an operation like
theirs. Their own fostering system
works best for them.
In addition to striving to im-
prove their farrowing perfor-
mance, the Dietrichs are trying to
improve in other areas. Under the
new pork grading system establish-
ed this April, their index has risen
three full points to 106.3, and they
now have pigs indexing 114. Paul
also attributes a 15 -day improve-
ment in time to market to their new
feeding system.
The Dietrichs see the value of
good nutrition for maximum pro-
duction. They relied almost ex-
clusively on purchased feed until
1978, when they purchased an on-
farm mill, plus feed bins and a feed
factory for soy, limestone, and
barley. They mixed this with corn
from another bin and a pre -mix to
make their feed.
The Dietrichs decided to buy the
mill system because they felt that
in the long run they would profit
from making their own feed and
would obtain a consistent feed not
available when purchasing from
various sources. However, the
Dietrichs were never completely
satisfied with the accuracy of the
feed mill. The mixture was always
within five per cent accuracy and
would even out at the end of the
year, but five per cent too much or
too little pre -mix at any one time
could change the mineral and
vitamin balance and affect produc-
tion.
In 1985, Paul and Anita were
among the first farmers in Ontario
to purchase a Weigh-Tronix com-
puterized feed mixing system,
which has provided them with their
much-needed consistency in feed.
When the couple first saw this elec-
tronic feeding system's $42,000
price tag, they filed the brochure.
But later, mostly out of curiosity,
JUNE 1986 7