New Tools to Manage Variability Throughout the Pork Production Chain

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on April 3, 2007 | No Comments

Variation in market weights can lead to decreased profit, and should be managed if possible. The amount of allowable variation in market weights depends on what range the packer is willing to accept. Seasonal variation results in lower market weights in late winter and spring, but the market prices tend to be higher at this time as well. Variation is hard to reduce in system after the system has been established, so steps to manage should be taken instead. One of the ways to manage variation is to sort the pigs at market. Visual sorting and sorting by days after placement are not very effective, so to accurately sort pigs they should be weighed. This can be time consuming, but auto-sort barns can help reduce the time and labour needed. Increasing the growth rate of the entire group does not reduce variation, but does increase the growth of the slowest growing pigs. Increasing the growth rate can be done through various methods including genetics, dietary formulation, and weaning management. Finally, increasing the packer sort window can manage variation, as a narrow window is costly to producers. Redesigning the production system to reduce variation can utilize some of the tools available. Segregated parity flow, high-health status, split-sex housing, increased and constant weaning age, opportunity barns to separately raise small pigs, increasing the weight gain of the smallest pigs, using sires with similar indexes, feeding multiple diets to a group, providing adequate water, and using Paylean are all technologies that can be used in designing a system to reduce variation. Large litter sizes have also resulted in decreased and variable birth weights. Birth weights can be increased through genetics or by specific dietary nutrients to the sow’s feed.

Managing Reproduction – Fact and Folklore

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The goal of many swine barns is to reach production levels of 30 pigs/sow/year, and producers are often promised this through various reproductive strategies. Gilts can have puberty induced earlier by PG600, which limits their non-productive days before first breeding. However, this can result in a low body condition score after lactation, and increased time between weaning and estrus. The best method seems to allow gilts to achieve puberty naturally, and to select gilts that have a strong and timely first heat. Early culling should be avoided if possible, and one way to improve this is to select for sows with strong, health legs and udders, and by monitoring condition through lactation. Conception rates can be improved by proper temperature control for semen storage, heat checking twice a day – preferably with a boar present – and allowing the technician breaks every 7-8 sows. Farrowing room interference varies depending on barn management strategies, but generally gilts and high parity sows will require more intervention. For lactating sows, the amount of feed given is less important than maintaining her appetite throughout lactation. Despite many studies on the subject, lactation feed intake still has no clear relationship with the next litter performance. However, poor body condition at the end of lactation will result in a delay of estrus, and more non-productive days. The worth of fostering will depend on the production system. It may not be worth the time in an all-in all-out system, or if disease is present. If it is used, runts will have greater success, and smaller litters can be held back for an extra week. Early weaning (under 18 days) can result in the sow having delayed estrus, and greater embryonic mortality. Generally, weaning at 3-4 weeks benefits litter and sow performance, unless the disease risk is increased by keeping the litter with the sow. Stockmanship remains important to productivity, as individual care and positive interactions can improve reproductive performance.

Benchmarking… Show Me the Money!

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This paper is on a producer’s experience participating in the benchmarking group, CIPHER, and how it differed from benchmarking within their production group. The CIPHER group results showed their facility to be lower in profit and higher in cost than other participants, and they depopulated and repopulated to resolve this.

Benchmarking… Show Me the Money!

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Benchmarking is useful to see how a producer is doing compared to his peers, but it is important to compare the same thing. Variables, units, and production size and system should be similar. The best way to start is with a few variables, and defined guidelines (i.e. when a sow is part of the breeding herd). The Ontario Data Analysis Project can be a benchmarking tool for income, expenses, and budget sheets for swine enterprises.

Key Measures of Performance in the Growing Finishing Barn for Informed Decision Making

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Record keeping for grow-finish sows has recently started to improve, but it is important to focus on the aspects that show a clear summary of performance. Some of the useful measures are growth performance, market pig information, mortality, feed usage, facility utilization, expenses, and inventory. Data collection should not be overwhelming, but accuracy and consistently collecting and recording it are important. A clear data management system is also necessary. Once data is collected it can be summarized in graphs, used for comparisons, and used to set goals or identify areas to improve. Management strategies should be reviewed regularly and changed as necessary. Some of these changes can include diet, use of Paylean, feed budgets, treatments like medication, vaccines, and in-food antibiotics, and marketing plans. As well, building considerations like room/barn preparation, maintenance, supplies, ventilation, and feed and water availability should be revised when needed. Proper management deserves recognition, and using measures like feed efficiency can overlook factors that are out of the employee’s control. Collecting grow-finish pig data can help give a view of the overall barn performance, and can highlight management strategies that can be improved.

Managing and Monitoring the Finishing Barn – Six Things Not to Do.

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The six things not to do to try to improve finishing pig efficiency are limiting feed intake, assuming overfeeding is better than underfeeding, underestimating costs other than feed, assuming growth promotants are worth the cost, assuming bigger areas and groups are better, and keeping all the risk and reward if using a contract finisher.

Best Management Practices Used in the Control of PRRS

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Controlling a virus like PRRS requires a good management strategy that acts on multiple areas of the barn. Before starting management of PRRS it is important to have a diagnostic work-up to confirm it is PRRS, and to characterize the strain. Feed should be balanced with energy and amino acids, can include some fibre, and be free of mycotoxins. Feeders should be clean and provide enough access for all of the pigs. Water sanitation should be checked yearly, and water access should be unrestricted. Ventilation should be controlled by relative humidity, and adjusted for the season. Chilling can lead to increased disease prevalence, so ventilation and temperature settings should be set to account for daily fluctuations. Sanitation can be improved by the use of a disinfectant, and by allowing the room to fully dry before occupation. Co-infections can happen when PRRS is present, and sanitation along with parasite control should be performed. Infected pigs should be separated into hospital and recovery pens, but it is important that they are kept with the pig flow. Water or feed medications can be used to manage secondary bacteria, and to treat symptoms. Injectable medications should not be used. A PRRS vaccine can be used, but immunity gained through exposure is more effective. Finally, biosecurity should be reviewed to avoid re-contamination by a new outside source, or by an inside source to a new area of the barn. Employee hygiene, sanitation of all equipment and hallways, strictly controlled cross fostering, and euthanasia of infected piglets are all ways to increase biosecurity. Good management strategies and employee follow through can help reduce the effect of PRRS in a barn.

On-Farm Health Management

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A farrow to finish facility experienced increased mortality, diarrhea, wasting, and pallor in finishing pigs, and it was identified to be H3N2. The first intervention was to give H1N1 and H3N2 vaccines to sows, obtain gilts at 5-20 kg and expose them to the herd to develop immunity, improved hygiene and sanitation, and reduced mixing and cross fostering. The first intervention gave no noticeable improvement, so litter and pen integrity was maintained, pig mixing was reduced, and PCV2 piglet vaccines were tried.

Competitiveness In The Canadian Pork Segment: A Reassessment

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments

A reassessment of the development of issues facing the competitiveness of the Canadian pork industry is presented in this paper. Natural factors such as grains are present. An example of this is Iowa corn in the USA has a far larger yield than Alberta barley, and Canadian grain prices are increasing. The result of such combined factors is that Canada has become a high-cost feeding region in comparison to the USA. Labour is also discussed in the respect of wages being far too high from the influence of the Alberta oil industry (~ $17.00), as well as Manitoba and Ontario (~ $12 to $13.00) being still higher than Midwest USA (~ $10 to $11.00). Labour shortage is brought on by the aging workforce and less youth enrolling in agriculture related careers, and the inability to compete with other industry sectors (primarily in Western Canada, but across Canada as well). This is resulting in farm operators working ridiculous hours (80 to 90 per week), which will eventually lead to cutbacks in production in order to reduce stress. Lack of labour is also significantly impacting the Canadian pork packing industry due to the fact that worker shortage has forced some big name packers such as Olymel and Maple Leaf Foods to discontinue or even be unable to begin a second slaughter shift. This results in an immense loss of revenue in the hog industry. Larger packer plant size in the USA results in cheaper cost of slaughter per head. Canada packing plants see roughly $5.00 more per hog than USA due to the smaller plant size and the lack of a double shift. This entire paper goes into much more detail as to how the hog industry from producer to packer has undergone changes that impact economics, exports, and competitiveness.

Oral vaccination against classical swine fever with a chimeric Pestivirus: comparative investigations of liquid and lyophilized virus

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