Lancashire farmer David Goodier, has seen an increase of more than two pigs weaned per sow per year, from 24.57 to 26.79, since he became an AHDB Pork Strategic Farm host in 2016.
A full room of producers and allied industry representatives joined Mr Goodier and the AHDB Pork team to hear about the latest practical changes and performance results at the fourth open meeting last week, near Wetherby.
There was a good discussion about improving gilt performance and AHDB knowledge exchange manager, Angela Cliff, reported that there are more of David’s gilts being retained to parity two this year than last year. This should start to improve the overall herd make up and party profile, with fewer sows in the later parities and more sows in the most productive parities.
The meeting also covered ventilation, water quality and on-fam data monitoring.
There will be more on the herd’s progress in future editions of Pig World and on this website.