Mike Lemmon, DVM
Mike Lemmon, DVM, wears many hats. But this agricultural entrepreneur is proudest to point out that everything he does relates to the fact he lives, eats and breathes the pig business...
Frozen Boar Semen Use Shows Promise
The use of frozen boar semen technologies to preserve genetics, reduce risk when introducing new genetics into the breeding herd, allow......
Organic Selenium Enhances Boar Fertility
The resounding acceptance of artificial insemination (AI) by commercial pork producers necessitates the need to manage boars for maximum fertility and semen production....
Seeking More Full-Value Pigs
After significant investments in time, labor and feed in the breeding-gestation barn, pork producers reap the fruits of their labor in the farrowing house....
Focusing on Reproductive Efficiency
This quarter's benchmarking article will concentrate on two areas. We will begin by comparing production records from the previous quarter and previous...
Management Tools Help Improve Reproductive Efficiencies
This study provides “proof-of-principle” that use of a purpose-built boar exposure area (BEAR) to induce a natural first heat in “select” gilts, and the use of low-dose exogenous gonadotropins to induce first heat in non-cyclic “opportunity” gilts,...
‘Skip-a-Heat’ Plan Helps Avoid Second-Parity Slump
Breeding Parity 1 sows at their second postweaning estrus has been shown to increase the number of live embryos detected at Day 30 of gestation. This increase in embryo viability may negate the effects of the second-parity dip in reproductive performance...
Heat Detection Critical to Success
Investing time and talent in developing effective heat detection methods should be a top priority on every sow farm. Gilt development aside, this activity...
Proper AI Techniques, Semen Handling
The first and overriding principle of artificial insemination (AI) in swine is if a sow is in standing heat, she can be bred; if she is not in standing...
Fertility Revisited
One of the successes in pig production has been an almost continuous increase in sow herd productivity. Sow herds have continued to increase the number...
