This is one of the things farmers find painful to do, most especially when replacement stock is not produced on the farm.
However, knowing the sow or gilt to be removed from your production stock early, saves a lot.
It is for this reason that a commercial producer’s eyes are always open and he/she is involved in the daily running of the farm, to enable quick decision making.
Delayed decision-making is costly. Gilts are commonly culled because of infertility or continuous estrus repeat from one insemination to another, broken limbs, slow growth and bad temperament.
For sows, culling is mainly due to failure to release milk, repeated small litter sizes, poor temperament, vices, for example, eating piglets, over age and poor mothering ability.
Many researchers recommend culling of sows immediately after five parties. In my opinion, culling of sows should be done basing on age varies.
Buying gilts and introducing them to the farm is both costly and risky. Also, raising a good mother is difficult.
Therefore, condemn the sow only when it shows bad traits. A sow can farrow up to 10 parities.
On small litter sizes, there are many factors that may lead to this. It may not necessarily be the gilt’s problem.
For example, the number of viable sperms per part of a semen dose will influence litter size, heat detection, feeding and reproductive diseases, among others.
