Benchmarking and Cost – Production Relationships

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2008 | No Comments

Agri Stats is a privately held company that provides professional benchmarking services to the commercial livestock industries. Currently, benchmarking services are provided for broiler, eggs, turkey, and swine production companies as well as their slaughtering and processing plants. Agri Stats started in the mid 1980’s with broiler benchmarking services. There are now twenty-one international companies participating in Agri Stats with the majority of those located in Canada and South America. Agri Stats collects participant financial and production data electronically each month. Internal auditors convert the data, prepare it for comparison and perform the monthly audits. Each company’s costs and financials are reconciled to their general ledger. Participants receive monthly detailed reports and performance summaries that allow them to compare their performance to other participants, the average of all companies and the top 25%. Current month, current quarter and previous twelve-month periods are reported. Each monthly report contains eight sections for analysis and comparison: Performance Summary, Feed Mill, Ingredient Purchasing, Nursery, Finishing, Market Haul and Profit. Benchmarking is simply the act of comparing data to improve performance. It can be and is done in various industries or in personal life. Businesses participate in formalized benchmarking to improve their performance, production and/or products. One benefit of benchmarking is that it contributes to the ability to see outside personal or professional practices. Benchmarking helps open the window to allow visualization of what individuals, companies and/or competitors are doing and how one compares to them. Effective benchmarking breaks this paradigm blindness and leads to creation of practices or processes that improve performance. Now that we realize the purpose and benefits of benchmarking, we should be able to agree upon its uses in the swine industry. In fact, it is used in various forms. These could range from simple production comparisons to elaborate and sophisticated total production and financial comparisons. Each and every commercial swine operation is encouraged to participate in some benchmarking effort; however, the ultimate goal is increasing profitability – not always increasing the level of production. Companies with higher feed costs/ton made it in the Top 25% list by being efficient and having advantages in other areas. The bottom line take home message is that a swine production company or entity needs to be aware of their advantages and disadvantages so they may properly position strengths and allocate efforts for improvement. Current challenges facing the Canadian swine industry do not appear to be improving as evidenced by increasing cost disadvantages compared to the US. Canadian participants achieve higher production levels than their counterparts in the US but are more severely challenged with higher costs. Recent trends indicate the production gap may be reducing. This primarily is due to declines in Canadian production at the same time as US numbers have improved. Higher production levels do not guarantee lower costs. Swine production companies need to be able to measure their strengths and advantages in order to focus efforts on lowering costs and improving profitability. Benchmarking is an effective tool for identification of strengths and opportunities as well as measuring progress and trends. Each swine production company should be participating in some type of benchmarking. To gain maximum benefit, production, cost and financial performance should all be part of the benchmarking program.

Effect of sodium butyrate on growth performance and response to lipopolysaccharide in weanling pigs

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Two experiments were conducted to determine the effects of dietary sodium butyrate on growth performance and response to Escherichia coli lipopolysaccharide (LPS) in weanling pigs. In the first experiment there was no effect of dietary sodium butyrate or tylosin on overall G:F, but there was a decreasing ADFI and ADG as levels increased. In the second experiment it was found that feeding diets containing sodium butyrate or carbadox did not alter ADG or ADFI compared with pigs fed the control diet. This indicates that dietary sodium butyrate does not enhance growth performance but may regulate the response to inflammatory stimuli in weanling pigs.

Transport of early weaned piglets

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Temperature and duration of transport have additive effects and put piglets at risk for dehydration, low
feed consumption and fatigue. Every effort should be made to avoid transport at temperatures above 30°C and to provide sufficient protection in winter. More studies of transport of early weaned piglets are required,
especially complimentary studies utilizing physiological measurements.

Comparison of ileal apparent, standardized and true digestibilities of amino acids in pigs fed wheat and lupine seeds

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Genetic correlations between gestation length, piglet survival and early growth

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The first aim of this study was to estimate the genetic effects of the piglets and the sow on gestation length. The second aim was to estimate genetic correlations between gestation length, piglet survival and average piglet growth. It was concluded that in pigs, gestation length is influenced by the genotypes of both the piglets and the sow. Selection or longer gestation would probably improve piglet survival after birth as well as piglet growth. It might, however, also result in more stillborn piglets.

Viable treatments for coccidiosis prove elusive, study shows

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In the most recent study, carried out on three farms
between May and September of 2007, fecal samples were
collected from 218 randomly selected pigs. Weights were
recorded weekly up to eight weeks of age from the 218
pigs and 467 litter mates. “Quite surprisingly,” the study’s final
report states, “at four weeks of age, pigs that were detected
positive for coccidia at two or three weeks of age were an average of 435 grams lighter than pigs that originated from
litters that were negative for coccidia.”
Similarly, at five weeks, pigs from positive litters were an
average 703 grams lighter than pigs which tested negative
for coccidia, although at eight weeks there was no difference
in weights between pigs that had had the parasite and
those that did not.
Of the most practical significance to producers this study found that farms not using detergent to clean
the farrowing crate environment were 1.7 times more
likely to be positive for coccidia than farms that do use
detergent.” However, he noted that the use of disinfectant
in the farrowing crate environment did not affect the risk
of coccidia.

Feeder Use Patterns in Group-Housed Pregnant Sows Fed With an Unprotected Electronic Sow Feeder (Fitmix)

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This study used data recorded by Fitmix feeders in three different stable
groups of pregnant sows to study (a) variations in the feeder use over time, (b)
circadian variations in the feeder use, (c) the consistency of the feeder order,
and (d) the effects of dominance rank on feeder use. Sixty Large White X Landrace female pigs (Sus scrofa) from first to eighth parity were selected on a commercial farm with high health status (PRRS and Aujeszky free). It was found that the lack of protection while feeding in Fitmix made sows split their ration in several visits. On the other hand, this fact also seemed to increase efficiency by reducing nonfeeding occupation of the feeder. Optimization of the feeder efficiency took several weeks. However, a rank-related feeder order was quickly established and maintained over time. The establishment of a feeder order may ameliorate disturbances around the feeder and help stockmanship to detect
problems. Nevertheless, these conclusions should not be extrapolated to different ESF designs, larger group sizes, or dynamic groups.

Ammonia emissions from organic housing systems with fattening pigs.

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The aim of this study was to determine the level and variations in ammonia emissions from buildings and outside yards, with different manure removal systems, for organically raised fattening pigs. It was found that differences in ammonia emissions between farms were probably mainly related to the manure removal system, design of the building and frequency of cleaning of outside yard. The farm with daily scraper cleaning and the farm with the slatted floor system had significantly lower emissions than the farm with bi-weekly manual removal of manure from a solid floor.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/15375110

Feeding Amino Acid Chelated Copper and Zinc to Reduce Mineral Pollution From Swine Manure

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It was hypothesized that Zn and Cu reductions in feed have compromised swine performance and substituting amino acid chelated (AAC) sources for traditionally employed inorganic salts (IM) may overcome environmental and swine performance problems. It was found that supplementing swine rations with Cu and Zn AAC could lower environmental impact through reduced fecal mineral concentrations and due to greater AAC bioavailability, feed rations could potentially be formulated with lower inclusions of Cu and Zn, without compromising swine’s performance.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.jarvm.com/articles/Previous.htm

Tile drains capture less water than expected

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Tile drains are not nearly as effective at rapidly removing
excess water as people assume, a good thing if you
are concerned about applied animal nutrients getting into
surface water bodies.
Experiments conducted last fall on a farm in the Upper
Thames River watershed near Kintore were designed to
mimic the worst conditions for applying pig manure – wet,
macroporous soil in fields that are systematically tiled. The research team found that tile drain discharge, even under
those conditions, could only directly account for 10 to 15 per cent
of the water that was applied to the surface of the field.
“The bottom line,” Rudolph says, “is that tile drains capture
much less than we ever would have expected. It has
been conventionally assumed that the tiles have a very large
area of influence. Field experiments show the influence is
much smaller than we’d anticipate.”
“To help us further understand the risks that tile drains
impose on our water resources,” says Rudolph, “more field
experiments are being conducted in other geological settings
and under a wider range of climate conditions.” He also
adds that movement of the chemical tracers applied last fall
is still being monitored.