Agriculture Form 3 – LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION

Pig farming

Advantages of keeping a pig

i. Pigs can eat a variety of food or products and are fast growers.

ii. Pigs are prolific i.e. give birth to many piglets. The action of giving birth in pigs is called farrowing.

Adult female pigs are called sows while adult male are called boars

iii. Pigs have a short reproductive cycle i.e furrows 2 times a year. Each patch of piglets is called LITTER with 16 or more.

iv. Pigs don’t compete with crops for land.

v. Pigs have a high dressing percentage i.e. meat% is high and nutrition of good quality.

vi. Pigs have high capacity to store fats.

vii. Pigs can withstand tropical temperature.

Factors limiting pig industry in Tanzania

                     i.            Irregular supplies of concentrates.

                   ii.            Pigs compete with man for food (do not eat grass).

                  iii.            Lack of knowledge for pigs husbandry among farmers.

                 iv.            Religious, taboos and social rigidities.

                   v.            Disease and parasite incidences.

                 vi.            Shortage of storage facilities.

                vii.            Damage of inbreeding: As pigs have high prolific rate there is a damage of inbreeding which result into loss of vigour and other side effects.

PIG BREEDS

1)      Land race: -Have high slim white body

         Have short legs

         Have drooping ears

         Highly prolific

         Have high food/ feed conservation ratio.

2)      York shire/ large white: -Have white body

         Have high dressing percentage

         Have erect ears

         Smooth long bodies

         sows have a good mothering ability

3)      Saddle back: -Have medium size body

         They are black in colour with a white belt around the shoulders, body including front Legs

         They have a well curved back and floopy ears.

4)      Hampshire: -Have similar characteristics as saddle back however

         They have erects ears instead of floopy ears.

MANAGEMENT OF YOUNG PIGS

         Provision of colostrums: Piglet has to suck their mother’s milk along the first three days after being born.

         When piglets are 1-3 days old, their intestine absorb immune globin. As the piglet becomes older their intestine becomes impermeable to immune globin.

         Farmer should help the piglets to find the teats of their mother immediately after birth.

During 1st -6th Week

         Dipping the navel into iodine tincture to prevent navel infection.

         Removal of mucus from their noses.

         Each piglet should be provided with identification by ear notching, ear tattooing, ear notching.

         Prevention of piglets against anaemia by supplying iron through

a)      Injection of 200mg of iron dextinne into the ham of each piglet 2-3 days after birth and repeated after 3 weeks.

b)      Smearing/ spraying ferrow sulphate salts to be the udder the sow of the sow area/ day during the 1^st 4-6weeks.

c)       Piglets may be given a dose of iron solution through the mouth once per week.

d)      Placing clean, red or yellowing sterile soil in the farrowing pen where piglets eat the soil to get iron.

e)      Administer iron tablets to each through the mouth.

o   Cutting the needle teeth, normally piglets are both with 8teeth known as temporary needle teeth. Those teeth may injure the sow during sucking as well as injuring another. Hence should be cut by plies or nippers after birth.

o   Provision of creep area (is a place supplied with artificial source of heat). This can be wooden box of 30temperature.

o   Provision of creep feed with a good weaner ratio.

         Castration: Boars which are not castrated have a bad smell and their meat smells bad. Also they have become viscous and become fat slowly. Castration is done 3-6weeks by surgical method.

         Weaning: Piglets may be weaned at the age of 3-5 weeks of provided with creep feed. If not weaning should be done and weeks. Remove the sow so that the piglets don’t notice her absence.

REARING PIGLETS AFTER WEANING

o   Group the wearers according to weight. Put similar piglet with the same into the same pen, piglets should be washed cleanly. The uniformly of piglets in each pen eliminate bulling at feeding. Each pen should be host 10-30piglets.

o   Provision of feeding and water troughs with enough space.

o   Feed the piglets twice per day.

NB: When rearing piglets for shaughtering feed then adlibutum i.e. provide enough food and water all the time so that they eat and drink at all the time.

FEEDING SCALE FOR PIGS

MANAGEMENT OF THE BREEDING HERD

o   Pig reaches maturity at the age of 6-7 months. Allow BOARS to meet GILTS.

o   Don’t over feed breeding pigs to avoid becoming too fat which results to low fertility.

o   Feed 2-3kgs of pig finisher meal for each boar per day.

o   Boars should be given enough exercise but do not overuse.

o   One boar should be grouped with 15-20sows, but mature boars can be grouped with 25-30days.

FlUSHING

This is a process of increasing the amount of food for the sows or gilt before mating.

Sign of heat: -The sow becomes restless

o   Frequent urination

o   The sow makes occasional land grants

o   The valve of the sow becomes large and red

o   At late oestrus the pigs stand still for the boars to mount

o   White mucus discharges from the vulva Mating

o   It is advisable to mate sows with boars of similar size. The oestruscycle of sow is21days. The gestation period is 114days i.e. (3months, 3weeks and 3days).

o   The standing heat period lost for 40-60hrs. During mating, supervise the mating. Help the boar to insert the penis in the vagina if necessary

• steaming up: increase of food ratio to filts or1 sows one month (just before) giving birth.
  

  o   Copulation takes 25minutes.
  

  o   During gestation period, sows should be given 2-2.5kg of food per day.
  

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PARTURITION (FARROWING)

This is the action of giving birth to pigs

PREPARATION BEFORE FARROWING

         Prepare a farrowing pen with the following facilities.

a)      Guardrails to protect the piglets from being crushed by sows when it lies down. Alternatively a farrowing crate can be provided where by the sow can’t reach the piglets can reach the sow through the side of the crate.

b)      Preparation of an artificial heating device for piglets in crop box prepared and installed.

c)       Provision of creep feed to be provided outside the following crate.

         The following pen should be treated with disinfectant one week before introducing the pregnant sow.

NB: Place bedding materials into the floor of the pen 4days before the pregnant sow is to farrow. Signs of farrowing

         The sow becomes restless

         Becomes nervous and unease

         Valva becomes enlarged

         Mucus discharge from the vulva

         Mammary tissues and abdomen protrude

         Milk secretion from the tents

         Frequent urination

CARE OF SOW AND PIGLETS AT FARROWING

o   Remove each piglet once it’s born.

o   Provide colostrums by allowing piglets to suckle.

o   If sow doesn’t provide enough milk, piglets can be transferred to another sow.

o   After birth liquid/ fluid should be collected.

o   The sow should be removed from pen and only piglets left.

o   Smear the piglets with the liquid of the after birth of the sow.

o   Hence the sow will not recognize piglets which are not hers.

NB: If the after1 birth fluid is not available, smear the piglets with a substitute which has a strong smell e.g. engine oil.

Artificial colostrums: If the sow does not provide colostrums within 3 days artificial colostrums should be provided.

CARE OF LACTATING SOWS

During the last 2 days before farrowing the sow should be fed with locative feeds e.g. brans and molasses to prevent constipation.

o   One week before farrowing the sows should be dewormed.

o   After farrowing sows should be fed with 1/2kg of bran and molasses.

o   From the 3rd day awards increase the feed gradually by 1kg per day until 3kg per day.

Feed the sow adlibilum

NB: The reproductive cycle life of a sow or boar is about 6-8 years depending on proper management. Call all sows, which give small litter and poor fertility and all boars with undersirable characteristics.

PARASITES OF A PIG

The most common external parasites include mites and lice, these can be controlled by scrubbing all pigs regularly with insecticides like texaphene or engine oil.

INTERNAL PARASITES OF A PIG

Include:

         round worms

         norductar worms

         Whip worms

         thread worms

         kidney worms

These damage the intestine, liver, kidney lungs which cause the pigs to be easily attacked by diseases such as pneumonia

CONTROL OF WORMS

o   Drench regularly

o   Clean the pig pen to prevent them from coming in contact with faces.

o   The worm all sows and gilts one week before mating, one before farrowing and one week after weaning.

o   The worm all boars at 50kgs weight twice per year.

MAJOR DISEASES OF PIGS

1)      AFRICAN SWINE FEVER:

Cause: Virus

Symptoms:

         Fever, Depression, Anaemia, Diarrhoea, Hdding in a corner of filling up, Paralysis,

         Eye and nosal discharge, Death after 7days.

Transmission:

         By direct contact with wild pigs

         Ticks, blood sucking insects, hippos, hyena and porcupine.

Treatment:

         Keep domestic pigs away from wild pigs.

         Control ticks and vaccinate animal.

         Slaughter infected animals.

2)      ANTHRAX:

Cause: Bacteria

Symptoms:

         Fever and swelling of lymph glands in throat area.

         Difficulty in breathing

         Loss of appetite

         Death

Transmission:

         Through eating (mouth) it is infections to humans.

Treatment and control:

         burry dead animals

         burn suspected animals

         penicilln naccination

3)      FOOT MOUTH DISEASE: Cause: Virus

Symptoms:

         Fever

         Oesicullation in snout, lips, tongue, mouth

         Lamenesis

         Yescrible rapture

Transmission:

         direct through feeding Treatment and control

         No treatment but protects pig by avoiding feeding pigs raw garbage or milk from infected.

         Vaccination

         Slaughtering affected animals

         Enforce quarantine.

4)      ENZOCTIC PNEUMONIA:

Cause: Virus (Mycoplasma hypneumonia)

Symptoms:

         Dry cough

         Slow growth

Transmission:

         Young pigs get affected from older ones

Treatment:

         No treatment

         Slaughtering infected animals

         Avoid overcrowding, poor ventilation and humid condtion.

Other diseases: Rinderpest, Hog cholera, Diarrhea, Swine dysentery, Brucellosis, Trip ecronomesis, Black quarter.