Pig Auto Drafter

[unlacedgecko]

Does such a thing exist? Can pigs be put through a race and a weigh crate like sheep?

 

[JP1]

Does such a thing exist? Can pigs be put through a race and a weigh crate like sheep?

Not exactly

A few sorting systems at £££ but not like a sheep race system

Pig farming activities - Dairy Farming

www.nedap-livestockmanagement.com

▷Sorting scale: for precise animal weights in pig finishing

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[unlacedgecko]

Hypothetical situation, I have a load of finishing pigs arrive. I’d want to sort them into boars and gilts, then again into weight bands for feeding.

How could I most cost effectively, yet accurately, achieve this?

 

[JP1]

Hypothetical situation, I have a load of finishing pigs arrive. I’d want to sort them into boars and gilts, then again into weight bands for feeding.

How could I most cost effectively, yet accurately, achieve this?

Bit of work. How many are we speaking of?

Hold my commercial hat up for a moment, we sell a stainless steel single pig weigher with an LED weigh parameter traffic light system and ultra low entry height. Put in a race with a Prattley type shedding gate on the exit?

If they are too close to finishing weight, they will probably fight and would they not be best kept in their groups as off the previous farm ?

 

[TripleSix]

Hypothetical situation, I have a load of finishing pigs arrive. I’d want to sort them into boars and gilts, then again into weight bands for feeding.

How could I most cost effectively, yet accurately, achieve this?

Weighcrate, passageway, gates and a couple of people with boards.

 

[Nukemall]

Unfortunately the pigs don't follow each other as well as sheep, especially in to a crate.
The best way I find to separate is still to put them in a passageway and mark the gilts, then two people with boards (one either end) one let's gilts past the other lets boars past and they meet in the middle.
If they are over 30kgs I wouldn't mix them if at all possible. If they are 30 kgs or under you would be best to size by eye, put a group of the sexed pigs together mark by size and shed with boards again. Less stressful than weighing.

 

[tomg]

I spoke to a chap called Victor at Pharmweigh a few years ago about this who was really helpful. We were hoping to build 2 fattening sheds at the time and wanted to incorporate a weigh/marking system. You can get a weigh to mark them according to set weight band's and I think it was auto drafting.
It was an expensive set up and think the biggest problem is getting pigs to flow through it.
Also it obviously can't do sexing.

 

[Formatted]

JSR has a setup in one of their finishing units where they have a "waiting/laying area" and then a one-way gate into a feeding area. The exit back to the "waiting/laying area" is through a weigh scale and a shedding gate. After the pigs hit the criteria they are drafted off into a separate laying/waiting area but still use the same feed area as they can just be drafted back into the laying waiting area.

Pigs won't run up a race voluntarily so you've got to automate it.

 

[Suffolk Serf]

JSR has a setup in one of their finishing units where they have a "waiting/laying area" and then a one-way gate into a feeding area. The exit back to the "waiting/laying area" is through a weigh scale and a shedding gate. After the pigs hit the criteria they are drafted off into a separate laying/waiting area but still use the same feed area as they can just be drafted back into the laying waiting area.

Pigs won't run up a race voluntarily so you've got to automate it.

They took all of that out as it was restricting feed intake and hence growth rate too much. Others have also done the same.
I know of one still putting them in, but he is a known nut case!

 

[Suffolk Serf]

I spoke to a chap called Victor at Pharmweigh a few years ago about this who was really helpful. We were hoping to build 2 fattening sheds at the time and wanted to incorporate a weigh/marking system. You can get a weigh to mark them according to set weight band's and I think it was auto drafting.
It was an expensive set up and think the biggest problem is getting pigs to flow through it.
Also it obviously can't do sexing.

Victor is very knowledgeable and makes (or gets made) very high quality kit.

 

[unlacedgecko]

Unfortunately the pigs don't follow each other as well as sheep, especially in to a crate.
The best way I find to separate is still to put them in a passageway and mark the gilts, then two people with boards (one either end) one let's gilts past the other lets boars past and they meet in the middle.
If they are over 30kgs I wouldn't mix them if at all possible. If they are 30 kgs or under you would be best to size by eye, put a group of the sexed pigs together mark by size and shed with boards again. Less stressful than weighing.

Got to be a single person operation, hence auto drafter. Race a weigh/drafting crate work?

 

[Nukemall]

Got to be a single person operation, hence auto drafter. Race a weigh/drafting crate work?

Just doesn't work, the pigs get very hesitant if they are on their own, they are much happier and easier to move forward at least three abreast. You need to be directly behind the pig to get them into a weigh crate, otherwise they stop or turn around in the entrance, and the one behind tries to climb over or bury underneath, and you very soon have a screaming pile of pigs.
My suggestion, if you have enough pen space, is unload the lorry, so the driver can get on, and you are not under time pressure. Then Mark and shed the pigs out of a pen with a moving board, but probably max 20ish pigs at a time. I do this when loading finished pigs.
If the lorry driver is not in a rush I guess you could do this out of the lorry.

As George Bernard Shaw said, "I learned long ago never to wrestle with a pig. You just get dirty, and besides the pig likes it".

 

[bitwrx]

When you find a good way of doing what you want, please let me know!

As people have already said, pigs are not like sheep. Much happier moving two or three abreast, but even then they can be fickle (or seemingly so, until you figure out what they're trying to tell you).

If this is for what I suspect it's for, you're probably just as well to eyeball the biggest 10% and the smallest 10% so you can pull them out, and treat the middle 8 deciles the same.

If you're designing a handling system read/watch all you can from temple grandin, and bear it in mind. The biggest issue we have with handling and weighing is changes in floor material. This is much less of an issue now our whole handling system is flat and smooth. We used to have an old swinging needle weigh crate, with a step up into it. Now *that* was a stressful job, for us and the pigs. Our second biggest issue is sharp corners, quickly followed by see through walls on the races. Oh to have known then what I know now!

 

[Matt]

pigs dont follow as other have said. We tried weighing our pigs properly as they came to slaughter weight. but after a couple of pens i came to the conclusion i would rarther whip my own balls with nettles than carry on weighing them.
That said second time we weighed them they went alot better.
So if you were adamant on weighing them i would start when they are around half grown and run away from you.

What we do now is weigh the biggest 4 or 5 in a pen of 45 - 50 mark them and go by eye. depending how many pens you have got you may want to do one to start then a pen about half way through then a pen near end to calibrate your eye.

 

[Pan mixer]

Weighing individual finished pigs is for people who have plenty of spare time.

Years ago I worked on a unit where we sold 600 finished pigs a week, every pig had been weighed and many had been weighed twice by the time they went.

It would take 4 of us 3 days a week with two crates.

On my own farm I use my pig weighing crate to block a hole in the fence unless someone wants a hog roast pig which is very tight spec. Funnily enough I haven't sold a single hog roast pig this year despite selling more than 400 last year.

A mark 1 eyeball is good enough to sort pigs, they don't disguise their shape with wool or different conformation like the ruminants. If you are on a tight spec for the abattoir then weigh one or two a week if you must and then let them back with the others.

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

We sell 5-600 a week and weigh at least 25% of them. Mostly done by 1 female who is more patient than me. All done with a simple weigher from QE @JP1
Pays many times over

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

They took all of that out as it was restricting feed intake and hence growth rate too much. Others have also done the same.
I know of one still putting them in, but he is a known nut case!

We took ours out a few years ago. Same issue

 

[Suffolk Serf]

And I think that you sold them to the known nut case that’s putting them in mentioned above!

 

[l'ordinary bonville]

A very sensible decision

 

[Suffolk Serf]

A very sensible decision

On yours or Captain Chaos'?