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Industry Partners
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:
Induced Farrowings: Are You In Control?
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2003 | No Comments
Induced farrowing is important for monitoring ongoing farrowings (to reduce stillborns, ensure colostrum, and revive dead piglets), ensuring they occur during the daytime, and reducing the variation in the day of farrowing among sows within rooms. Average gestation length should still be determined because of the possibility of herd variation from factors such as changing parity distribution and changes in breeding management. It may be necessary to stop inducing for a period to re-establish the average gestation length. Programs such as PigCHAMP help to analyze the induction program. Induction is working if it is helping to save piglets and helping to predict when sows will farrow. Consistent procedures must be followed (either through auditing or standard operating procedures) to ensure consistency in injection. Other variables to consider include gestation day and hour of injection.
2003 Michigan Swine (Farrow to Finish) Business Analysis Summary
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This report summarizes the financial and production records of 9 Michigan, farrow to finish, swine farms. To be included, the farms must have produced at least 50 percent of gross cash farm income from one or a combination of fat hogs, feeder pigs and cull breeding hogs sales. The records came from Michigan State University’s TelFarm project and the Farm Credit Service system in Michigan. The values were pooled into averages for reporting purposes.
Farm records were included if a farm financial summary was completed on 2003 data including beginning and ending balance sheets, plus income and expenses. The data were checked to verify that cash discrepancy was less than 10% of gross cash inflow and that debt discrepancy was less than $1,000. While considerable variation in the data exists, average values are reported in the summary tables below.
Effect of boar genotype on reproductive performance of the local sows of Zimbabwe
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Panel Presentation: Managing The Nursery
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Nursery is a critical time in a piglet’s life. Several areas need to be managed to see success carry through. Rooms should be prepared (repairs, feeder setup, etc.) and washed thoroughly between batches of pigs. Pigs should be weaned as heavy as possible and safe weaning procedures should be followed as to not injure the pig. Once the pigs arrive in the nursery they should be separated based on size. Adequate heating and ventilation are required to control chilling and disease. Several different rations can be used depending on individual farms’ length of nursery and stage of nursery. Good pre-nursery management can minimize disease, but monitoring of health is still essential. Veterinarians can be called in if a serious problem arises. All treatments should be recorded on a quality-monitoring sheet. Communication is essential so that staff in all areas of the barn can keep up with what is going on in the nursery and what will be going on in the finisher.
Water Usage and Manure Production Rates in Today’s Pig Industry
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An accurate account of water use is important in today’s expanding hog industry. This will indicate the size of wells and manure storages that are required. Data from nine similar farrow-to-finish operations were collected, and it was found that total water use for all phases averaged about 89.5 L/sow/day, 80% is used for drinking, total water for different types of operations were in general agreement of the guidelines, and more. The highest per head usage was in the farrowing phase, and then gestation, grow-finish, and nursery. The grow-finish phase had the highest percentage of total herd usage, followed by gestation, nursery, and farrowing. Daily manure production was the most in farrowing, then gestation, grow-finish, and nursery. Grow-finish had the highest percentage of total herd production, followed by gestation, nursery, and farrowing.
Antibiotic in swine diets: where have we been? Part I
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The concern for the swine industry is that antibiotic usage, particularly sub-therapeutic use, is contributing, directly or indirectly, to antibiotic resistance in human medicine. One of the issues with antibiotic usage is that it has a nutritional benefit other than combating specific pathogens and any alternative to antibiotic usage has to take these other effects into account. The common theory is that intestinal bacteria, whether harmful or not, depress animal growth, either directly or indirectly, through their metabolic activities. Perhaps the best support of this hypothesis is the observation that oral antibiotics do not enhance growth in germfree animals, while inoculating germfree animals with gastro-intestinal (GI) bacteria depresses growth. A clear difference between germfree and conventional animals is a thinner wall of the small intestine. The rate of renewal of the cells that line the GI tract is slower in germfree animals, which may have a beneficial effect on base energy expenditure and the efficiency of nutrient utilization. These observations are consistent with the view that in rapidly growing young animals, the GI tract and skeletal muscle draw from the same limited supply of nutrients and, in effect, compete for nutrients. Antibiotics do not simply act on microorganisms but may be involved in immune system function as well. Phagocytes (cells of the immune system that “eat” pathogens) are a major component of the immune system. These cells are involved in both host defenses and various pathological settings characterized by excessive inflammation. Accordingly, they are key targets for immuno-modulatory drugs, among which antibacterial agents are promising candidates. In addition the microbiota of the digestive tract has a direct impact on host immune cells. Alternatives to antibiotics MUST ultimately focus on the gut microbiota of the pig gut. These alternatives included prebiotics, probiotics, dietary acids, various fractions of the grain and oil seed processing industry, as well as vaccination. Each of these topics will be dealt with in detail in a future article.
Production Tools to Reduce Variation and Improve Throughput
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2002 | No Comments
There are basic statistical methods that producers could use to measure and reduce variation. Line graphs and scatter graphs can be created in Microsoft Excel and the regression tool can be used to measure variability of 2 variables (more sophisticated statistical programs can handle more than 2 variables). Standard deviation and especially the coefficient of variation (CV) are the most important tools for measuring variability in a production system. CV can be used to measure variability between 2 unlike processes (such as average daily gain and litter size) and can be calculated also using Microsoft Excel. Process behavior charting (a.k.a. Statistical Process Control, SPC, Control Charts) is one of the most effective tools available for monitoring farm performance and variation simultaneously. Process control charts allow demonstration of average performance and variation, for any production parameter. By doing so, they allow the farm management to focus their resources on the real problems. On process control charts, data points that deviate from average performance by a significant amount are called “signals”. Signals reflect events that have a true positive or negative impact on performance, and need to be investigated. Examples of the most functional charts for reducing variation and improving throughput includes reproductive performance, nursery and grow/finish performance, feeding programs, AI studs, feed mill performance, marketing, condition scoring, and industrial experimentation.