National Pig Association THE VOICE OF THE UK PIG INDUSTRY NPA is active on members' behalf in Brussels & Whitehall, and with processors, supermarkets & caterers - fighting for the growth and pros-perity of the UK pig industry.

• Anticipating a seasonal reduction in fertility and serving extra females to ensure an even output of slaughter pigs is a logical response to this regular occurrence but it does come with strings attached i.e. using older sows that should have been culled reduces litter productivity, but bringing in extra gilts too often fails due to problems with getting gilts in-pig.
  
  

• During hot weather pigs require shade – getting that shade from the tents in the dry sow paddock isn’t totally effective if a deep bed of heated straw is the lying area.
  
  

• Availability of cool, clean water is a prerequisite for really good feed intake in lactation during the summer heat – the warm soup from a wallow trough hardly fits that bill. The use of a narrow cattle trough that is regularly cleaned out and de-bugged has paid dividends on one of Rattlerow’s units .

The real benefit from these meetings is not just the presentations from industry experts but the debates and discussion that they stimulate amongst producers. There is always something your neighbour is doing that you can learn from!

Source: Ian Campbell, National Pig Association - 18th June 2006