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Whilst this may have great health benefits, it also places far greater pressure on resources. Where there may have been one week's worth of pigs demanding more of a particular resource, now there are five.

With some resources, this may be beneficial in various ways. For example, some producers find that concentrating on a particular activity once every five weeks, instead of all activities each week, aids teamwork and promotes labour efficiency.

However with others it may mean more capacity is required, even though total usage remains the same or goes down. Resources are more inclined to become limiting. A resource with a capacity that was sufficient before, may become limiting to the overall performance, because more is needed at any one time.

For example, there may be enough labour to pressure wash all the rooms, but they can't do it if there aren't enough pressure washers to go around. Two particular examples that may not be very obvious are water and electricity.

For more information on Batch Farrowing, click here

Source: Nick Bird - Published on the web by National Pig Association - 15th October 2004