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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:
Global Growth in Pork Production
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2007 | No Comments
The global pork industry is evolving at a rapid pace. It is characterised by increased levels of global competition, expansion of industrialized production, vertically integrated supply chains and production of differentiated products to meet the needs of increasingly demanding consumers. For Canadian hog producers, gaining an appreciation of the global operating environment, especially the emergence of new hog production regions, is important in assessing the future direction and profitability of the industry and their own enterprises. This knowledge becomes even more acute when considering the current operating environment in Canada; an appreciating currency, high feed costs, labor shortages, processing sector restructuring and ever-increasing government regulation. World pork production has increased more than 37% since 1997, from 74.4 million tonnes to 101.9 million tonnes in 2007. China continues to completely dominate global pork production, whereas the European Union’s (EU) share of total production has fallen from close to 25% in 1997 to 21% in 2007. At a cursory level the profitability of hog production is dependent on six fundamental pillars: access to feed grain; accommodation and other infrastructure costs; regulatory requirements (e.g. environmental legislation); access to, and cost of, capital; labor costs and availability; and management expertise and practices. Likewise, pork processing is dependent on access to raw materials (hogs), labor and capital, management expertise, regulatory requirements, infrastructure, technology adoption and access to end-users. China was undoubtedly the most interesting market for meat in 2007 and it provides a fascinating insight into how the dynamics of production and trade competitiveness can change over a very short period of time. In the Chinese pork market in 2007, the influences of all six drivers of profitability mentioned above were evident. The explosion in meat prices in China attracted widespread media and political attention. In June 2007, China’s consumer price index (CPI) rose to 4% while pork prices jumped a staggering 101%. In the later half of 2007, there was some downward adjustment in pork prices but prices remained well above 2006 levels. What the locals refer to as blue ear disease, thought to be PRRS along with high feed costs and persisting FMD have had a fairly dramatic impact on the world’s largest domestic pork industry. There have been varying reports on the number of hogs that have been culled and what other measures have been put in place to curb the spread of PRRS but it is clear that domestic production in China has fallen. The Chinese government will be investing heavily to revitalize the domestic pork sector. From a political and social perspective, it cannot afford to displace the farmer population at a faster speed than is already occurring, and food security remains a key government initiative. It will likely take a number of breeding cycles for domestic production to show signs of recovery. Look for China to play a bigger role in world grain markets as an importer as it attempts to rebuild domestic production. In the pork industry of next decade, successful industry participants will need to be more efficient and cost conscious to maintain and enhance their competitive position. How and where the handful of animal protein multinationals choose to make investments and subsequently, how these companies choose to utilize their geographically diversified productive capacity, will ultimately determine what new pork production regions emerge and challenge the traditional exporting countries, such as Canada. Continued awareness and analysis of the global pork operating environment will be necessary in determining the future directions of national and regional pork industries.
Weaning more piglets with four times feeding
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Feeding nursing sows four times daily instead of twice increased feed consumption, reduced sow weight loss and led to slightly more piglets weaned in a year-long trial in Germany.
Altogether 168 sows were involved in the project at the Futterkamp Institute. Those fed four times over the 21-day suckling period lost an average two kilograms less weight during that time and produced just over 0.7 weaners more per year.
Although these results are not regarded as statistically significant by the researchers, it is felt that the tendency towards higher numbers of weaned pigs could be an encouragement for farmers to consider ad lib or electronic systems rather than hand feeding twice per day.
Younger sows fed four times daily consumed an average 5.4 kilograms per day compared with 5.1 kilograms for the twice-daily groups, but they had more milk for their litters with piglet weight gain better by one or two grams per day.
The Futterkamp Institute also used this trial to look into the effect of lowering crude protein content in lactating sow rations with the main aim of reducing nitrate in the resultant manure. The sows were either fed 15 per cent crude protein content in rations during suckling or the more conventional 17.5 per cent plus one per cent lysine proportion. The results showed that protein reduction did not really affect performance, while the manure from each sow on the low protein ration contained an average 1.44 kilograms less nitrogen per year.
Recycling of livestock manure in a whole-farm perspective
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This paper argues that a whole farm
perspective taking side-effects and on-farm interactions
into account is needed to determine the cost effectiveness
of mitigation strategies for livestock manure management. Agricultural land (mainly on arable farms)
also receives other types of organic waste, such as sewage
sludge or municipal composts, but they are not considered
here where the focus is on the internal flows of nutrients
on livestock farms as influenced by treatment strategies
and management. It was concluded that it is important to consider pollution control strategies
for a farm in the framework of local and regional
pollution control planning. Investments in environmental
technology should be made where the impact on air
and water quality is most required. Insofar as intensification
of livestock production increases pollution within
an area, the lower production costs may facilitate the
concomitant implementation of environmental technologies,
although Government intervention (e.g., subsidies
to encourage change or stricter regulations) may be
required.
Economic Impact of Strategies to Increase Pig Weaning Age
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Sow farm revenue and production costs are typically calculated on a per weaned pig basis. This encourages a reduced lactation length and weaning age in order to increase the number of pigs weaned per week. Pig weaning age is declining due to the fact that lactating sows have a fixed amount of space and the fact that the number of litters farrowed per week is increasing. In this paper, researchers investigate the economic impact of lactation length on post-weaning performance. One of the main results obtained was that reducing sow inventory in order to increase lactation length led to little improvement in the systems profitability. This is due to the fact that the reduction in sow inventory ultimately results in a lower amount of pigs weaned, and although they are heavier and they do grow faster, it is not enough to make up for the lower amount of pigs marketed. Alternatively, increasing physical lactation spaces to increase lactation length will have a payback of less than two years in many production systems.
Allosuckling in domestic pigs: Teat acquisition strategy and consequences
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Allosuckling (suckling by a young of a female other than its mother) has been observed in many wild and domestic group living mammals (Riedman, 1982; Packer et al., 1992). The causation and function of allosuckling for females remains puzzling given that producing milk is costly and that allosuckling may augment the risk of pathogen transmission between mothers and alien offspring. Furthermore, based on the typical nursing and suckling behaviour in domestic pigs allosuckling should be quite difficult for alien piglets to achieve for following reasons. First, every piglet usually occupies and suckles from one teat or occasionally from two teats (Rosillon-Warnier and Paquay, 1984; de Passille´ et al., 1988), which it defends against littermates and alien piglets. A teat order develops within the first days of life and unused mammary glands atrophy during the first week after parturition. Allosuckling is often reported to result in several negative consequences, including fighting among piglets, disruption of the teat order and higher proportion of missed nursings (Andersson and Andreasson, 1992; Pedersen et al., 1998), resulting in reduced milk intake and weight gain (Puppe and Tuchscherer, 1995; Wattanakul et al., 1997, 1998). On the other hand these negative consequences seem to be rather short term and after some time the suckling strategies of faithful piglets and allosucklers are equally successful. Only little is known about the impact of allosuckling on the growth of the recipient mother’s own young. Víchová and Bartoš (2005) found that the growth of beef cattle calves was not negatively affected by allonursing of their mothers. Similar results were found also in red deer (Bartoš et al., 2001) and in bighorn sheep (Hass, 1990). On the contrary, it has been suggested that frequent allonursing of a dam may result in insufficient maternal nutrition provided to the own calf (Murphey et al., 1995; Owens et al., 1985; Stevens et al., 1982). In pigs, nothing is known about the impact of allosuckling on the weight gain of teat losers. The aims of the study were to identify the strategies used by allosucklers and teat losers during teat acquisition; to assess how teat fidelity was affected by allosuckling and how allosuckling affected weight gain of the allosuckler and teat loser. Ten pairs of sows and their litters were used in this study. For each pair, the two sows were housed individually until their litters were weaned; however, their litters had access to both sows from day 10 post-partum. The behaviour of the animals was videotaped for 6 h on days 10, 11, 16 and 24 postpartum. The strategy of teat acquisition and the teat fidelity were analysed for every pair and for every day of observation. All piglets were weighed on the day of birth, days 10 and 24 post-partum. The predominant takeover strategy (69%) was to occupy a teat from a piglet owning two teats. The other takeover strategy was to usurp a teat from a piglet owning one teat. In almost all cases (95%) teat losers were able to find a new teat in that nursing before milk ejection. The occurrence of allosuckling had no significant effect on the teat fidelity of the non-dam sow’s litter (GLMM, NS). Permanent allosucklers did not differ in weight gain (Student’s t-test, NS) from faithful piglets and the teat losers did not differ in weight gain from their littermates (Student’s t-test, NS) on day 24 post-partum before weaning. Our results indicate that allosuckling does not confer any major advantage for allosuckling piglets but it does not impair the growth of the non-dam sow’s litter.
Genetic Sources of Variability in Pig Production
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Increasing uniformity has important economic implications for pork production and rightly receives a lot of attention. On the other hand, a certain amount of variability is useful for different production environments and different market needs. Variability can also create opportunities for improvement if the reason for better performance or specific quality can be identified and repeated. Variability in pigs has both genetic and non-genetic sources. These include nutrition, disease challenges, production system, and social interactions to name a few. Genetics is certainly one important source of variability among them. The overall differences among breeds or lines are an important source of genetic variability. Differences among the many breeds and lines available can be potentially very large. One reason for differences is that the foundation stock may have had some unique characteristics, such as maternal abilities or pork quality. However, a breed may be exceptional for one trait such as large litters, but not be able to meet the requirements for other traits such as carcass quality or feed efficiency. Genetic selection is another, perhaps more important reason for breed and line differences. The differences will depend firstly on the selection objectives, which determine the direction of genetic changes for specific traits, and secondly on the effectiveness of the selection program which determines the magnitude of the changes. Often the differences between sires of the same breed can be larger than differences between two different breeds. Advances in molecular genetics allow us to more precisely evaluate and control genetic variability. The Halothane gene and the RN gene are two examples of individual genes that have large effects on pork quality. Eliminating the adverse form of these genes enhances both the quality and uniformity of pork. A more recently available discovery is a test for the IGF2 gene. This gene has been shown to control a large amount of variability in carcass lean and sow productivity. Sires that carry only the lean form of the gene will produce leaner and substantially more uniform market hogs. Similarly, maternal line sires that carry only the fatter form of the gene will produce gilts that are substantially more uniform for body condition. Other genes are being discovered that could have a large influence on various traits, such as defects, intramuscular fat levels, longevity and resistance to disease. New tests for these genes will allow more precise control of genetics and production of more uniform market hogs. Genetic evaluations based on genetic differences between individuals provide a tool for producers to gain control over genetic choices. These choices can enhance herd performance levels and also move performance in a direction that matches the needs of each producer. The genetic choices made by producers can and do have a large impact on both herd performance and variability. Unique attributes of the foundation stock of a breed or line may be an important consideration. However, it is also important to consider the selection objectives that have been followed and the total amount of genetic change that has been made for traits of interest. Genetic evaluations of individual pigs, especially AI sires, offer new opportunities for producers to fine-tune the use of genetics for their own needs. These opportunities are increasing with the recent discoveries of tests for important genes, and will become even larger as more gene tests are available.