Sow non-milking theory from the viewpoint of suckling behavior and labor productivity

Abstract

Although swine was domesticated at the early stage of animal domestication history, milking has not been conducted from sow. The purpose of this study is to clarify the difficulty level of sow milking, the amount of labor input for sow milking and production by sow milking, then discuss the factors leading to non-milking in sow from the viewpoint of suckling behavior and labor productivity. Milking from sow was not successful unless it was carried out according to the suckling behavior between sow - her piglet. The milking was laborious work due to the timing of milking, the sow willing for milk secretion, and the easy interruption by the surrounding environments. The milking interval averaged 56.6 minutes and milking success rate remained at 61.3%. The mean amount of milking was only 11.5 ml/7 hours. It was thought that the important one of factors which caused non-milking from sow from the viewpoint of suckling behavior and labor productivity was; 1) the sow milking itself was difficult work, 2) sow milking made a milker detained all day long, 3) the amount of production (milk) was extremely small, and 4) sow's milk was not necessary to be incorporated into local food production system.