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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Pork Production in a Youtube Environment
Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on March 29, 2012 | No Comments
The introduction for Trent Loos’ London Swine Conference, 2012 presentation, the presentation is available on video at www.londonswineconference.ca.
Collaboration between the Ministry of Labour, WSPS and You
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The Ministry of Labour and Workplace Safety and Prevention Services (WSPS) provide information for workplace safety. There can be proactive or reactive visits to workplaces to assess the safety. WSPS also provides training and audits.
Evidence Based Decisions: Combing Science-Based Studies with Experience
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Making treatment and prevention decisions for swine should be based on scientific studies, and veterinarian and producer experience. An internet search on a problem will often give a variety of responses, but the value of the information can be low if it is not supported by data. In descending order of reliability, the scientific resources used to make decisions are systemic reviews, randomized blinded clinical trials, observational studies, case reports or studies, peer reviewed manuscripts, and proceedings papers. Producers can run their own clinical trials, but often make the mistake of giving one batch a treatment and using the next batch as control. This can often confound the results due to differences in performance between batches. When making health decisions, producer and veterinarian experience is still invaluable. The combination of a veterinarian’s training and experience with a variety of herds, and the producer’s intensive knowledge of the herd health can help make the best decision for the herd.
Marketing Options in a New Environment
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on March 28, 2012 | No Comments
The Ontario Pork marketing environment has changed due to changes in regulation and changes in the market environment itself. Changes in regulation have made enrollment in Ontario Pork’s marketing services voluntary, and credit protection is only available to pigs sold through Ontario Pork. The market has changed to favour farmer’s bargaining, and to create more market options. For example, there are now grids that will accept a variety of sub-par finishing weights, and the trend of speciality products is expected to continue to rise. The Ontario processing industry also has increased investment and capacity. The new market has increased risks with receiving payment, created a hog deficit which favours farmers, and resulted in more variable plant grids. As well, a new pricing methodology was created by Ontario Pork Universal Services. The Ontario Pork Marketing Service is voluntary, but offers benefits like credit protection, plant contracts, benchmarking and evaluation services, and the Forward Pricing Program.
Maximizing the Impact of High Value and High Fertility Boars
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Fertility of boars is usually evaluated through physical exams and semen evaluation, but this can only identify sub-fertile boars. As well, artificial insemination in swine uses pooled semen with high sperm numbers, so less productive boars can be masked. If fertility of boars could be accurately evaluated, less fertile boars could be removed and offspring could have increased productivity. Sperm fertility traits can be grouped into compensable or uncompensable based of whether large numbers can overcome the defect or not. Fertility data for boars in use is lacking, but thought to be varied and normally distributed. Around 2/3 of boars are thought to be have good fertility levels, but the bottom 1/3 drags down the overall performance, which could result in 1 less pig born alive per litter. If only the elite boars could be used, then breeding could be done with fewer doses of semen and less sperm per dose. Utilizing higher performing boars could be achieved through a 3 stage process. In stage 1, all new boars have their semen processed in single-sire doses, and the lowest 1/3 of boars are identified and removed. In stage 2, post-cervical AI and lower count (1-1.5 billion) single-sire semen is used to breed sows, and the lowest 1/3 of boars is again identified and removed. The final stage involves breeding sows with a single 1-1.5 billion count single-sire dose using single, fixed-time and post-cervical AI techniques. The lowest performing 1/3 of boars is again removed. The identification and use of elite boars is predicted to improve pig value by $0.80-1.30 per pig.
Why Benchmarking is Important
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Benchmarking allows for meaning comparisons to be made between companies or regions, and areas capable of improvement to be identified. When opportunities for improvement are identified, the entire team should be aware of the new goals, clear measurements should be tracked, long term growth should be considered, and knowledge can be shared with the benchmarking group. To succeed, benchmarking need significant commitment, accurate measurements of variables, and continuous data recording.
Implementing Simple and Useful Production Benchmarking
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Benchmarking allows for comparison within an industry to provide insight in how to improve. Paradigm blindness is when business leaders become focused on their own operation and fail to consider outside factors. When benchmarking, it is important that all of the values being compared have been calculated in the same manner. As well, performance data can be useful, but the real benefit of benchmarking usually comes from comparing financial results. One way to ensure the variables compared are the same, and to compare current performance and financial information, is to use a benchmarking company such as Agri Stats.
Differences in Mating Between a Boar, Traditional Artificial Insemination, and Post Cervical Insemination
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Sows can be bred by mating with a boar, traditional artificial insemination, or, more recently, post-cervical artificial insemination. Mating with a boar differs from artificial insemination because the boar has a higher number of sperm per ejaculate than an AI dose, and because it is a three phase ejaculate: the pre sperm flush, sperm rich fraction, and post-sperm rich fraction. The three sections work with the sow’s uterine contractions to deliver sperm to the egg. Traditional AI does not insert as far into the cervix as a boar, contains fewer sperm per dose, and is a homogenous mixture. Semen loss is also increased because of the lack of plug that a boar’s post-semen rich faction creates. Post-cervical AI delivers sperm to the uterine body reducing the distance and sperm loss, and it is less time consuming that traditional AI. However, it generally cannot be used on gilts. The reproductive performance of traditional and post-cervical AI is similar, but PCAI achieved this with fewer sperm per dose.
Post Cervical Artificial Inseminations in Sows – What, Why, How?
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Post-cervical artificial insemination (PCAI) can reduce costs, use less semen, and utilize superior genetic for more sows. PCAI represents an economic savings as it is faster than traditional AI, so requires less labour, and uses less semen. The reproductive performance of using PCAI instead of traditional AI has been variable, even though the expectation was an increase. PCAI does not require a boar, but does need time for the cervix to relax. As well, heat checking is still necessary, timing remains important, and PCAI does not appear to be appropriate for gilts yet. PCAI is still a developing technology, but has the potential to increase breeding rate, reduce labour and costs, and increase availability of superior semen.
What You Should Know About Your Financial Health
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Five useful financial ratios for producers are the debt service coverage ratio, acceptable current ratio, debt to equity, operating expense ratio, and loan to security ratio. These are tools that can be used in financial planning and analysis to help make future decisions.