Ease Your Gilts into Electronic Sow Feeding Systems
Whether you are converting an existing herd or populating a barn utilizing electronic sow feeding systems (ESF) with new gilts, it can be a long road to get the herd comfortable with the new system.
It requires patience and consistency. Tanner McCulley, a regional sow manager for TriOak Foods in southeast Iowa, says it typically takes about 28 to 30 weeks to get a group of animals to understand what’s going on. Still, he’s quick to point out that as TriOak Foods has established herds with ESF, and even more importantly, established staff, they wouldn’t have a single person go back to their old feeding systems.
He offers a few tips for producers to consider when training animals to use ESF.
1. Mirror the new environment before you make the move.
Prior to conducting heat checks on gilts, give the gilts at least two weeks, maybe upwards to 30 days, in a mirrored environment like they will experience post preg-check. Put waterers in the same place, use the same ESF station just with ad lib feed and give them plenty of time to explore and observe.
2. Be very proactive.
Starting on day one, get gilts up and start training them to use the feeding station. “If you wait two or three days to look at that action list, you're going to be having an uphill climb,” he says. “Gilt training has been paramount for us, getting that gilt exposure to the system.”
3. Interact. Interact. Interact.
Within the group pens, get gilts comfortable with people interaction. The hidden bonus of taking these extra steps to acclimate gilts or sows to this new environment is that it seems to alleviate the stress around that first crate introduction when they move a gilt from post-heat check to a breeding area.
Stay tuned for more in the Synergy on the Sow Farm series from Farm Journal's PORK.
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Why Training Your Employees is Crucial to Electronic Sow Feeding Success
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