In five short years, Bob Dykhuis expanded his sow herd from 5,000 to 20,000, riding a wave of mostly solid hog returns from 2002 through 2007.

However, as he turned the calendar to 2008, industry profits suddenly disappeared, fueled by a sharp descent in hog prices and corresponding escalation in production costs.

Plus, the losses and treatment costs of managing Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia (APP) and porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) added to the economic downturn for this Holland, MI, producer.

Quick Action

Dykhuis acted decisively. In April 2008, he decided to shave 15% off the sow herd, reducing it to 17,000 sows.

“We think this action reduces our cash outlay and our need for debt, and just strengthens our operation. We are following through on this and other cost-cutting measures (see sidebar) because we have seen that our overall economy is not going to be out of the woods anytime soon,” he relates.

Dykhuis also decided to phase out some older, more inefficient barns under grower contracts, and consolidate and utilize more topnotch growers closer to home in northern Indiana and southern Michigan.

Dykhuis had a whole series of new barns being built in the last year or so, some in northern Indiana, to serve as finishers to absorb some of the company's weaned pig production. A dedicated site was also selected just south of the Holland, MI, area to raise replacement gilts.

New Depopulation Strategy

For years, Dykhuis Farms attempted to improve herd health using rolling depopulations. But these failed to root out APP or PRRS, and were replaced with complete site cleanups.

“With rolling depopulation, you are taking out the old sows and replacing them with new ones, but you are not emptying the barn as you would with complete depopulations,” he says.

Total site cleanups take five months to complete and offer many advantages. “It is a great time to empty the facility, clean and disinfect everything and make all of the necessary building repairs,” he says.

Strict parity segregation and total site depopulations have helped eliminate APP, which produced a performance-robbing cough; positive and negative sows couldn't be mixed.

For PRRS, those steps have helped Dykhuis learn to live with the stealthy virus. PRRS produces few symptoms but drags down efficiency, and strains evolve to survive.

Sow Herd Structure Changes

The new parity segregation plan initiated by Dykhuis and his staff was an integral part of the farrow-to-finish operation's overhaul, and started during the early part of 2008.

Normally with parity segregation, gilts are raised to maturity on an isolated site, then join the main sow herd after farrowing their first litter.

But to upgrade the farm's PIC herd health profile, Dykhuis opted to advance the concept of parity segregation much further.

“In a sense, it all starts with the 2,000-sow grandparent herd that raises gilt replacements for all of the other herds and for itself,” he says. “That's at the top of the pyramid.”

Those replacements are developed in off-site facilities in the Holland area. “Those gilts come from the grandparent herd, and are weaned at 21-plus days. The idea is to try and get them exposed to the cloud of PRRS virus in the area. We want them to seroconvert (produce an immune response) to a PRRS virus challenge,” Dykhuis explains. Gilts are also typically vaccinated once, in the nursery phase, with the modified-live-virus PRRS vaccine from Boehringer Ingelheim.