Podcast: Tacking pre-weaning mortality in Denmark

The Real P3 podcast series is a recent initiative, where pork professionals from all over the world are interviewed about challenges and solutions in their day-to-day work.

In the 12^th edition of the podcast, Dr Casey Bradley speaks to Sanne Baden, aged 46, farm manager at Avlscenter Trekanten, a 1,200 sow multiplication unit. She has 28 years of experience in all kinds of different functions in the swine business and speaks of the mindset required to do the job.

Pre-weaning mortality

Baden speaks of a farm where she took the job and within no time she went from 23 to 28 pigs weaned per sow per year. She says, “I have been able to turn around most of the farms I worked around actually. I am very detailed when it comes to especially the farrowing houses. […] When I get into a new farm the first thing I do is ask a lot of questions to the staff what is the greatest challenge.”

As Danish sows are known for their high prolificacy, pre-weaning mortality is a known problem in Denmark, and as a result the Danish spare no effort to get those numbers down. She shares her views how to lower pre-weaning mortality figures.

In the previous weeks, Pig Progress published earlier episodes of the Real P3 Podcast Series:

• The prologue of the podcast series;
• Episode 1: Mihaela Angheluta, Denmark;
• Episode 2: Christine Snowden, Ohio, United States;
• Episode 3: Johan Odendall, Zimbabwe;
• Episode 4: James Lamb, North Carolina, United States;
• Episode 5: Dr Wayne Johnson, China;
• Episode 6: Colin Twomey, Ireland;
• Episode 7: Paul Faris, United States;
• Episode 8: A recap of 2020;
• Episode 9: Angie Krieger, United States;
• Episode 10: Henry Silva, United States;
• Episode 11: Shannon Dierking, United States.