Couple questions

yorkboy35 · Post by **yorkboy35** » Sun Mar 30, 2008 9:25 pm

Does anyone use pg600 when they wean sows? If so how many days have you seen till they come into heat? If you don't use it has anyone had any problem with them not coming into heat within about a week? I worked at a commercial far for a while and we had probably 98% came into heat within 5 days and it worked well. Tried it myself once and wasted a lot of money on semen cause she never came in. Just wondering what everyone else was luck with. Thanks

drw · Post by **drw** » Mon Mar 31, 2008 12:09 pm

If you're ordering semen, it's a good idea to wean on Friday. That usually gives you time to tell whether she's coming into heat and cancel the order Monday morning if need be.
I've read studies showing that it was beneficial to give PG 600 at weaning. The only time I do that is if I have expensive semen ordered, and want some insurance. Most of our sows cycle like clockwork after weaning without PG 600 if they're in good shape.
Recently I've had a couple of sows that didn't cycle as expected after weaning, but that cycled about two weeks later. After checking our records, I think the sows actually cycled while nursing as a result of the babies getting a little bit sick from vaccinations. We vaccinate the babies while they're still nursing (at 7 and 21 days of age) and wean at 28 days. In both instances, the sow's cycled about 26 days after we had vaccinated the babies. Because of recent vaccine shortages we've had to replace one product with a 1 cc dose with two products requiring 4cc total. I've noticed that the pigs act dopey for a few hours after receiving the two shots. I think the babies stopped nursing long enough after vaccination to trigger the sow's cycles. The cycle we observed a couple of weeks after weaning was actually their second cycle. In both cases we bred the sows, and they caught.

SpotShowDad · Post by **SpotShowDad** » Tue Apr 08, 2008 8:36 am

We have used PG 600 when weaning and had good sucess with the sows coming into heat however, one thing we notice is the sows tend to remain in standing heat considerably longer and if inseminated too soon you run the risk of missing her. We either stretch the breedings out as far as possible or use a third dose. Good Luck!