The Rural Voice, 1998-04, Page 34GET READY FOR SPRING
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30 THE RURAL VOICE
temperature drops below 37 degrees
C. The piglets suffer hypothermia
and become lethargic. They don't eat
enough and don't get the early belly -
full of colostrum they need.
"Eliminate hypothermia and you
automatically will get less mortality,"
English said.
Requirements for heat drop after
24 hours, he said.
Fostering can also help vulnerable
pigs but there's not enough
understanding of the process, he said.
There's too much shifting of pigs and
the fostering doesn't start early
enough. "Always ask the question,
how can we help the smallest pigs?"
Big pigs, he said, quickly drink the
100 ml of colostrum needed but they
keep the smaller pigs from filling
their essential need. If you can take
the bigger pigs out for a while after
they've eaten, the smaller pigs will
have their chance to drink and get a
good start.
The University of Aberdeen
conducts courses for workers
on farms teaching them how to
foster properly. He supported the
view of another speaker, Sharron
Bergsma of Kase Vanden Heuvel
Farms, who tailored the number of
piglets to the number of usable teats
on each sow.
He cautioned loading up gilts with
adopted piglets, suggesting the gilt's
ability to feed piglets must be
balanced against its own ability to eat
or it will waste weight and won't
rebreed well.
At the University of Aberdeen, the
emphasis has been on training in the
workplace. Periodic workshops are
conducted for stock people on farms.
The students are tested before the
session and again at the end of the
session to see how much information
has been absorbed. Testing before the
session is a learning tool, English
said, alerting people to what they'll
be learning. There is a big difference
in test scores between the beginning
and the end of the session.
"We feel 95 per cent of people
who work with animals are caring.
They are humble and want to learn
more."
Stockmanship skills can help
small producers compete with big
integrators, he said. He pointed to a
report that one large new integrator
in the U.S. turned over its staff