Manually removing piglets from the sow's birth canal during farrowing or "sleeving," is a management practice that both swine industry professionals and the general public view in a positive way. It helps prevent sows from becoming fatigued during farrowing. This should help them maintain the ability to initiate and successfully complete the powerful contractions needed to push piglets out. It also decreases the likelihood that piglets are born weak, hypoxic or dead due to prolonged transit times through the uterus and cervix.

However, what often is challenging for many employees is determining when to intervene versus when to leave sows alone and "let nature take its course." Experienced technicians often rely on changes in sow behavior as a guide provided that they can observe sows frequently and be present during the entire farrowing process. This can be difficult to accomplish consistently, especially when there are a large number of sows farrowing over a short period of time.

Because of this many farms have adopted an established set of guidelines or standard operating procedures with regards to which sows should be checked. While some of the guidelines listed in such a SOP may be farm-specific there are several aspects of which should be universal and fairly easy to implement based on the physiology associated with farrowing.

Several of the SOPs that seem to be the most popular among farrowing barn employees that I have observed during close to 40 years of farm visits are listed below:

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Source: William Flowers, who is solely responsible for the information provided, and wholly owns the information. Informa Business Media and all its subsidiaries are not responsible for any of the content contained in this information asset.