Lianol® Ferti permits us to successfully serve all our gilts after the synchronization.
Frank and Ester Stevens
Frank and Ester have a pig farm with 730 sows, 80 gilts and 4500 fatteners. In order to be able to handle the workload themselves, they work within a 4-week management system. The sows are taken care of by Frank and Ester together, while Frank is also managing the nursery and fatteners.
“The 4-week management system requires a very strict management scheme. It is important that all the sows come into heat 4 to 5 days after weaning. This applies in particular to our gilts. We synchronize them with Regumate®”. In order to manage all this to perfection, Frank and Ester rely heavily on Lianol® Ferti.
“In the past, those gilts refused to come into heat on time and our management scheme became mixed up. We had to sort those gilts into the subsequent breeding group. This resulted in extra empty days and therefore in extra costs, time and work. However, those empty farrowing pens bothered us the most.”
Trying to solve the problem, their veterinarian introduced Lianol® Ferti. Every gilt receives 1 Ferti tablet per day, counting from the end of their synchronization treatment to the moment of serving the gilts. Frank and Ester are very pleased with the results. "Now all gilts come into heat spontaneously and show a good standing heat to the boar. Even more importantly, they are doing it at the right time." Since they use Lianol® Ferti, they are able to introduce practically all the new gilts as planned into the existing breeding groups. As a result, the number of litters per sow per year (LSY) has increased by approximately 0.05 points. All this ensures that Frank and Ester wean on average 0.65 piglet more per sow per year.
Alongside Lianol® Ferti, the Stevens family uses Lianol® Colostro. This product is only used for smaller and weakened piglets in the farrowing pen. “Thanks to Lianol® Colostro, those piglets are boosted and are able to drink colostrum better. This is important to us” says Ester. “With Lianol® Colostro we support those little piglets during their difficult start in life. This makes our litters more uniform around weaning. We clearly notice the benefit of Colostro® in the results obtained from the nurseries.”
"Since we started working with Lianol® Ferti tablets, we successfully serve all the gilts after synchronization and they don’t need to be re-served. In our 4-week management system this is very important. The costs are limited and the farrowing pens are always full.” says Frank. Ester completes; "We now check our gilts by means of ultrasound with much more confidence and that gives peace of mind. In the end this is the most important thing to us"
We now check our gilts by means of ultrasound with much more confidence and that gives peace of mind. In the end this is the most important thing to us - Frank and Ester Stevens
Farm profile
Location Hilvarenbeek (The Netherlands)
sows: 730
born alive: 15
weaned: 12,99
