The Perception of Biosecurity, Management and Labour of Batch Management Production Systems among Pig Producers

Nowadays, batch management systems (BMSs) are more frequently applied on a pig farm than traditional continuous production systems. But till today, little research has been identified about pig breeders’ perceptions of BMSs. Therefore, a survey was built to assess advantages and disadvantages, perceived by the producers of each BMS, focusing on biosecurity, management and labour. The survey was completed by 45 farmers. Results revealed that 4-BMS and 5-BMS farmers were more satisfied about hygiene (P=0.0060) and health conditions (P=0.0225) on their farm compared to the farmers with remaining BMS. This could be explained by the need for only one farrowing room and the low number of batches required in both BMSs. Possibly due to this higher amount of farmers being satisfied about their biosecurity, a reduced piglet vaccination coverage (P=0.0399) and a more labour efficient management (P=0.0101), were indicated by those farmers. However, almost no one among those farmers indicated the absence of labour peaks in the list of advantages, probably because the weekly routines differ over the weeks, unlike a 1-BMS and a 3-BMS. To conclude, this research provides essential information about farmers’ perceptions concerning biosecurity, management and labour for all BMSs but these results need to be confirmed by quantitative biosecurity measurements.

Jaar van publicatie:2017

BOF-keylabel:ja

IOF-keylabel:ja

BOF-publication weight:0.5

CSS-citation score:1

Authors from:Higher Education