SEARCH
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:
Reducing Grower-Finisher Feed Costs
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on April 1, 2009 | No Comments
A feed program can be formed with a nutritionist by creating a plan, evaluating the outcome, review the plan, and make revisions. Since monitoring is decreasingly performed, and when it is done can often be inaccurately performed or recorded, two software programs have been developed: qboxanalysis and qscan. Qboxanalysis compares carcass characteristics to specific processor demands. Qscan is a performance monitoring tool, and it records growth through cameras in the barn.
Reducing Feed Costs in Grower-Finisher Barns
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Feed remains the largest cost to pork producers, so every option to reduce costs should be considered. Some of the ways to reduce feed costs are to have a high health status, phase feed, split sex feed, reduce wastage, use alternative ingredients and have an accurate feed budget. One case study involves a farrow to finish facility that wanted to improve ADG and feed conversion after changing terminal sire lines. It was found the feed budget was inaccurate in later grower stages, and a feed intake trial allowed a feed intake curve and ADG curve to be created. The budget and curves highlighted areas to change and revisions in the diets have improved performance.
Hog Price Reporting in Canada
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Marketing agencies were traditionally used to provide producers with economic power, but increased exportation and consolidation has changed the marketing options. Through interviews, the price reporting in each pork producing province was documented. Alberta uses marketing organizations like Western Hog Exchange, but has no official government reporting. Saskatchewan uses an organization called SPI that uses Maple Leaf contract prices. Manitoba has a provincial government report, a Maple Leaf report, and a Manitoba Pork Marketing report. Quebec reports prices through the Federation of Quebec Pork Producers. PEI uses the Hog Commodity Marketing Board based on Ontario Pool numbers. Each report varies in the way to access the information and the frequency of updates.
Benchmarking and Feed Budgeting
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Benchmarking is useful for self-comparisons, and for comparisons within a peer group or to industry averages. One of the useful applications of benchmarking is for feed budgeting, especially attempting to reduce feed costs. It will allow production and financial information to be traced while single variable changes are made, for example, reducing the time spent on the most expensive diet. Benchmarking requires accurate and consistent data input, but the return of information can be well worth the time.
Benchmarking and Tools to Maximize Profit
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on | No Comments
Benchmarking is useful on various scales, and for both production and financial comparisons. Agri Stats allows for monthly benchmarking for swine producers, and currently has finisher and sow barns participating. Benchmarking requires continuous input of data, but producers can gain perspective on how their facility compares and where it can improve. Agri Stats can breakdown financial performance, so producers can see which area is behind. More general production numbers, such as pigs/sow mated/year, are more useful for comparison than highly detailed production numbers, as production numbers do not necessarily equate profit.
Lowering Feed Costs
Posted in: Economics, Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Feed costs remain (and are expected to remain) the major cost in pig production. In Great Britain, the cost of producing 1kg of meat is higher than other major pork producing countries, and they also have lower production levels. In the UK, reducing feed costs is complicated by variables that are hard to control due to the production system used. This includes lack of environmental control due to semi-intensive housing, use of straw, the use of old housing or large group housing, and disease. Feed costs can be reduced by reducing wastage, competition for nutrients, or increasing feed utilization. Competition for nutrients can be from disease presence, fungi such as fusarium, and yeast or bacteria in feed. Improper nutrient utilization can occur due to feed formulation imbalances, inaccurate nutritional values, and particle size. Some of the basic requirements of increasing daily feed intake are to have feed in the feeder when the pig wants it, have the feed accessible, have adequate feeder space, placing the feeder to avoid fouling, uniformly blending feed, and controlling formulation changes to avoid anti-nutritional factors. Other considerations include having strategies to counter the effects of hot weather, being aware of breed-specific feed intake curves, running feed intake trials regularly, and monitoring of ingredient changes in different loads for liquid feeding. The use of co-products in feed can help reduce costs, although there are problems to consider before incorporating them into a diet. The nutrient profile is not always consistent and can deteriorate in storage, storage tank uniformity needs to be monitored and controlled, the nutrient profile should be analyzed regularly, co-products may be less palatable, co-products can carry contaminants, and handling may be challenging.
Fine Tuning Nursery Management to Optimize Production Costs
Posted in: Economics, Pork Insight Articles by admin on | No Comments
Weaning age and weight can impact a pig’s lifetime performance, so weaning management can impact the barn’s production and economic return. Increased weaning age from day 12 to 21 can result in increased profit by $1.00-1.25 per pig, and increasing weaning weight by 1kg can increase growth by 40-45g/day. The day 20 weight gain also can be used as an indicator of future performance, and increasing feed intake during the first week can help improve this. Feed intake can be improved by reducing the amount of stress from disease and management. Adequate water intake should not be neglected, as the beginning of water intake from a drinker may be correlated with the beginning of feed intake. Water access and wastage both need to be considered when choosing a drinker, and drinkers should be adjusted to the proper height throughout the nursery phase. Water flow and quality should be tested, and supplementations, flavour, or globulins can be added. Proper nursery temperature should be maintained at the pigs’ level, and daily variation should be minimized. Studies on nursery photoperiod are still minimal, but the ones conducted have shown an effect on feed intake, ADG, and immune functioning by altering lighting regimes. Feeders should be chosen to permit group eating and minimize competition, which is achieved by the traditional dry multi-space feeder. Feeder coverage should be closely managed, and mat feeding can be used for the first 3 days post-weaning. Group size appears to have little effect as long as density is maintained, and density should be chosen at the level that brings the greatest return. Genetics, air quality, and litter mixing can are also parts of nursery management. Finally, for feeding strategies offering and increasing intake of creep feed, high quality starter diets, and up to 5 days of gruel feeding can all help to improve nursery performance.
Rethinking, Retrenching
Posted in: Economics by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments
There were a few wisps of optimism — a fractionalized resiliency that often accompanies pork producers attending trade
shows. Clearly, many were on the lookout for new ways of squeezing a little more efficiency out of their already tightened down production units. The more seasoned in the crowd reassured others that the pork industry had been through tough times hefore — perhaps not this tough — hut tough nonetheless. Pork producers and allied industry representatives often spoke in somber tones as economists delivered less than- good news about the prospects
for a return to profitability. One universal point gained consensus — the U.S. sow herd is too big
and too productive for the current domestic and global economic conditions and per capita pork consumption
trends. As feed costs climbed, pressure to save more pigs increased. A move to later weaning nudged the pigs weaned per litter average upward, those pigs were finished at heavier weights, and the percentage of pork exported to
foreign customers climbed. The march toward greater productivity and efficiency has been steady, but this lockstep advancement has bumped into a wall made up of a global economic downturn, a wrongly named influenza virus, and a backlash that will likely be felt well into the New Year. Those committed to staying in the pork industry must look for strategic partners who will help develop a risk management/survival plan that will help carry them through this year and into the next. Those who step forward to stand with business-minded pork producers will build trust and loyalty that will serve them well when profitability returns — and it will. Many difficult decisions will be
made in the coming months. Some will be made slowly, deliberately. Some will be made out of necessity.
All will likely carry emotional and economic price tags that will linger.
China Low on a Strategic Reserve: Pork
Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments
Last year, the world’s largest hog producer was forced to look abroad to feed its increasing appetite for pork. China imported nearly 2 million tons of pig meat in 2008, up from only 700,000 tons in 2007. A leading contributor to this was a blue-eared pig disease, a virus that spread to 25 of China’s 33 provinces and regions in 2007-2008. Meat production is projected to nearly double by 2050 and pork currently constitutes 39 percent of global meat production.
Changes in Debt Patterns and Financial Structure of Farm Businesses: A Double Hurdle Approach
Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments
The objective of this paper is to help explain one aspect of the changing capital structure of U.S. production agriculture – the increase in the number of debt free farms. It is considered that the farm operator’s decision to borrow outside funds as a “two-step” process. Credit decisions are inherently joint decisions between the lender and the borrowers. Our findings suggest that nonfinancial factors, such as operator age, region, risk aversion, and financial factors such as debt service ability and the cost of capital play significant roles in distinguishing borrowers from non-borrowers. Future research will consider other potentially key explanatory variables and explore alternative econometric methods of modeling farm household credit use.