Developing and utilizing visual tools to assist pork producers in employee training in the evaluation of sow body condition

The article describes development of a bilingual poster to assists pig producers in classifying body condition scores (BCS) in sows. Sows of the lowest body condition score were purchased, fed for 96 days, and photographed as each sow incrementally increased to the maximum BCS of 5. Pictures from two sows of each BCS of 1 through 5 were professionally arranged on a poster and published in a nationally distributed swine magazine. The poster was designed to assist producers in employee training at the farm level. Similar posters could be developed to improve selection and/or management skills in other livestock species.