“I think for a while the gilt development was a forgotten piece of the sow system and I think it is our greatest potential for improvements in sow reproduction and lifetime performance. We need to start paying more attention there.” – Dr. Kara Stewart

Today’s episode will cover “Back to the basics in gilt development”.

What you will learn:

- Boar exposure in gilt development

- Optimal weight, age, and number of estruses at first breeding

- Acclimation to the breeding crate

- Out-of-feed events in GDUs

- Space requirements and number of gilts per pen

- Have gilt development units and gilt research been forgotten?

Kara’s favorite swine-related book: Charlotte's Web

Kara’s favorite book in general: Daring Greatly

Our guest is Dr. Kara Stewart. Dr. Stewart received her bachelor’s degree from Purdue University in 2001 and her master’s and a doctorate from North Carolina State University in 2004 and 2008, respectively. Dr. Stewart taught in the Department of Animal Science at NC State for two years before returning to Indiana to work for Cook Inc., a human medical device company. In 2013, she accepted a faculty position in reproductive physiology in the Department of Animal Science at Purdue University.

This episode was edited and published by Lauro Faccin.