This Month's Focus: Making Solid Business DecisionsLater Weaning Bumps Sow Herd and Pig Performance | Take Another Look At Later WeaningBy Derald Holtkamp, DVM and Paul Yeske, DVM Increasing weaning age while reducing breeding herd inventory may help cut losses. Challenging the conventional wisdom about maintaining breeding herd... |
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Sensitivity Analysis Projects Impact of Economic Variables on Pork Production Systems | Sensitivity Analysis Identifies Risk, BenefitBy Linden Olson Assessment tool helps prioritize investment and management plans. Sensitivity analysis in the context of this article does not refer to a personality... |
Start Pigs Right to Boost Market ValueBy Joe Vansickle Senior Editor Iowa swine veterinarian's program targets 95% full-value pigs. The path to top-notch postweaning pig growth performance begins in the breeding-gestation... |
News Flash
Regional Risk Management Workshops Planned in Iowa
Two risk management workshops are scheduled for parts of Iowa this month. The USDA Risk Management Agency, Iowa State University (ISU) Extension, Iowa Pork Industry Center and Iowa Pork Producers Association are sponsoring these interactive swine editions of Margin Maker...
Pork Board Continues Support For Swine Identification System
Last week’s announcement by the U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) scrapping the National Animal Identification System (NAIS) doesn’t alter the National Pork Board’s objective for pork producers to have timely disease surveillance and protection for the U.S. swine herd...
Rising Pork Exports Add to U.S. Jobs
As U.S. pork exports climb, pork production increases and so do pork prices, which in turn creates jobs, according to a recent analysis conducted by Iowa State University economist Dermot Hayes...
USDA Shuts Down National ID Program, Plans New Framework
The U.S. Department of Agriculture (USDA) announced plans today to develop a new, flexible framework for animal disease traceability in the United States, and pursue several other steps to further strengthen disease prevention and response capabilities...
Current Issue
Revisiting the December Pig Crop Report
At what point do we punt the December Hogs and Pigs Report? That is the question that is weighing on the minds of both market analysts and producers as hog slaughter numbers remain far below expected levels and weights show no signs of "backed up" hogs. I realize there are performance issues, so let's discuss the report, what it suggested for this spring, and the forces that could be driving numbers in various directions.
Current Issue
Year-End Meat Inventories Down
Friday's Cold Storage report was not wildly bullish, but was certainly good news regarding the status of frozen meat and poultry inventories. Stocks for every species were well below year-ago levels and lower than the already-low levels reported in the December report. Data for all meat and poultry species appears in Table 1 and the monthly species totals are shown in Figure 1 to provide a historical perspective.
