Published on Jan. 16, 2024
“She's a very maternal sow, with uniform piglets and few losses”: A Hypor customer success story
Julien Follenfant is a parent stock producer based in France.
How do you see Hypor Libra evolving?
In a year and a half, the results have been very positive. Once tamed, she's a very "malleable" sow. By that I mean she's very easy to handle, requiring very little assistance. All I have to do is apply the fundamentals of pig production.
What can you tell us about the evolution of your performance?
Over the past year, we've reduced the number of weaners by one sow/herd, but we've still achieved our objectives.
Between 2019 and today, we've gone from 32.27 weaned/productive sows/year to 35.10, and weaned per sow from 12.49 to 13.58, with no additional workload. We even had a herd with 14.27 weaned. We're talking here only about weanlings under the mother's care; once the litter calibration has been done, no adoptive litters are produced. The two big days are Thursday and Friday of farrowing week, and the rest of the time will be spent on conventional breeding follow-up.
What impresses you most with the Hypor Libra sow?
Her maternal side and low maternity loss rate. Over the past year, we've had a 7.4% loss rate on live births. I've had the occasional herd at 2.7%, and yet I work with the most conventional equipment. No scale box...our new objective is to reach 6%, and we'll get there!
How is this sow suited to tomorrow's challenges?
As I said before, she's a very maternal sow, with uniform piglets and few losses. She's suitable for two reasons. The first is that it's a reward for us to see the results of our work, so there is a positive effect on morale. The second is that it's important to be able to communicate with people, and the characteristics of the Hypor Libra makes it easy to explain what we do in breeding.
The Hypor Libra sow in 2 words:
Maternal and rustic.
Performance
Fertility rate | 94.3 |
---|---|
Total piglets born | 15.62 |
Weanlings/litter | 13.58 |
Maternal loss rate | 7.4%. |
GMQ 8-115 | 743 g/d |
Carcass added valu | 19.5 cts/kg |