Leslie Wilson Cooper Farms

1
Leslie WilsonCooper Farms

• Summer Internship 2005

2
History of Cooper Farms

• Est. in 1938 by Virgil Cooper
• Turkeys are main product
• Virgil retired after over 45 years in 1980
• Jim, Gary, and Diane

3
(No Transcript)
4
History of Cooper Farms

• Hog production since 1994
• Produced pigs from first sow farm in 1997
• Send to contract nurseries until 45-55 lbs
• Then to contract producers until market weight

5
Facilities

• Four sow complexes
• Deer Run
• Rose Grove
• White Oak
• Canal Farm
• 2,500 sows
• Herd manager, breeding manager, and farrowing
  manager.

6
Biosecurity

• Shower-in and shower-out
• Uniforms
• All equipment is sterilized before entering the
  farm
• 48 hours between farms

7
Production

• Wean about 1100-1400/week
• Twice a week
• Pigs are weaned at approximately 18.5 days

8
Artificial Insemination

• All of the sows and gilts are bred by AI
• Generally come back into heat 3 days after
  weaning
• Given 3 services
• Recorded on their cards

9
Wet Feed Trial

• Deer Run Farm

10
Wet Feed Trial at Deer Run Farm

• Objective
• To study differences in feed intake between sows
  on dry feed and sows on wet feed during
  lactation.
• Problem
• Gilt feed intake decreases during lactation
• Gilts average 14 PBA while P1s average 8 PBAs

11
Wet Feed Trial

• Ultimate goal is to increase feed consumption in
  sows during lactation, especially in gilts.
• Daily feed intake recorded
• Backfat measured

12
Wet Feed Trial Procedure

• 1 room dry feed
• 1 room wet feed
• Equal parities
• All sows are fed at 7am
• Then fed as needed at 10am, 1pm, and 3pm

13
Wet Feed Trial Procedure

• Every morning feed that was not eaten was scraped
  out and weighed.
• That weight was recorded and subtracted from her
  daily intake.

14
Wet Feed Trial Results

• Average daily intake of sows on dry feed was
  12.53 lbs/day
• Average daily intake of sows on wet feed was
  13.16 lbs/day.
• Wet fed sows ate 0.63 lbs more a day.
• In a 2 week lactation period would equal 8.82 lbs
  more feed intake.

15
Wet Feed Trial Results

• Gilts ate an average of 1.2 lbs more wet feed
  than dry feed a day.
• Over a 2 week period this would equal 16.8 lbs
  more feed.
• Parities 1-6 ate slightly more wet feed than dry
  feed, while parities 7-9 ate more dry feed.

16
Wet Feed Trial Backfat Comparisons

• Dry feed group
• Beginning 16.68mm
• Ending 13.84mm
• Loss 2.84mm
• Wet feed group
• Beginning 16.84mm
• Ending 13.82mm
• Loss 3.02mm
• Wet feed group lost 0.18mm more backfat

17
Responsibilities

• Protocols
• Oxytocin Injections
• Estrumate Injections
• Needle and Syringe size, Injection site, Use and
  Dosage
• Backfat Measurements
• Supply list and Procedure

18
Responsibilities

• Helped team members whenever I could
• Feeding sows
• Creep feeding
• Sow vaccinations
• Day 1 pen-iron shot
• Moving sows

19
Responsibilities

• Monitoring farrowing record born alive, still
  born, mummies, time between pigs
• Processing
• Iron shots
• Ear notch
• Dock tail
• Castrate males
• Check for ruptures
• Weekly Chores laundry ?, sweeping, trash, dishes
  

20
Things I have gained from working at Cooper Farms

• Lifelong friendships
• Independence and confidence
• Hands-on experience
• Knowledge of the swine industry

21

• Internship inquiries
• Terry Wehrkamp
• terryw_at_cooperfarms.com
• www.cooperfarms.com

22
Any Questions?