When we looked at the Swine Management Services (SMS) database for the last 52 weeks, the average farrowing rate for 754 farms was 85%, with the top 10% of farms at 90.3% and the bottom 25% at only 79.2%...More
Sixty-four-year-old pork producer Robert Dircks has striven all of his life to build a progressive hog operation that achieves top production and high herd health that makes it a joy to raise pigs in southeast Iowa...More
As recently as five years ago, many in the U.S. pork industry felt the prospects of achieving 30 pigs/mated female/year (P/MF/Y) was a dream. Today, the 30-P/MF/Y goal can be and is being achieved on some select farms...More
In recent years, the goal of many sow units has been to achieve the elusive 30 pigs/sow/year (P/S/Y) production goal. Several units have already achieved this goal, and an elite few North American producers have surpassed the 30-pig mark...More
The number of pigs a sow can produce annually continues to be a popular measure of production efficiency. The common metric used to compile sow productivity level is the well-recognized pigs/sow/year...More
Selection is the most powerful tool in making permanent genetic improvement in swine. There have been no long-term selection studies targeting the subject of this Blueprint...More
A variety of sow software management programs are used to estimate the genetic parameters and breeding values across herds, so a close examination of the traits used and the emphasis on each trait is warranted...More
A few weeks ago, a client asked us to review his production numbers and give him some suggestions on how to improve using the current labor pool.
Producers are putting more effort into saving more pigs in the farrowing area. One of the key challenges to this focus is keeping weekends fully staffed. With this in mind, we took a closer look at the day of the week sows are weaned and created a model that will help us look at the weaning question....More
The first was the family-owned and operated Ivey Spring Creek Farm (ISCF) near Goldsboro, NC, which began modestly in 1979, with select purebred Chester White and Spotted bloodlines that grew to 250 sows with the help of a low-interest, Farmers Home Administration (FmHA) loan during the Carter administration...More
In recent months, we have been getting questions on the size of farms as it relates to performance. Back in September 2009, we broke the size of farms into four groups:...More
The Pork Checkoff, Pioneer Hi-Bred and PIC have awarded 19 scholarships to college students to further develop participation in the pork industry’s future...More
Sows are more productive today than ever before. However, continued improvements in sow lifetime productivity will maximize breeding herd profitability and minimize animal welfare concerns...More
As we continue to analyze the effect of weaning age on sow herd performance, we have three more areas for discussion and review: total born/mated female, born live/mated female and pigs weaned/mated female....More
We have been asked by several people to look into the effect of weaning age on performance of breed-to-wean facilities. Since we get data from over 20 different sow recordkeeping programs, there is some question of the accuracy of what true average weaning age is because record programs handle nurse sows, partial litter weaning and crossfostering, differently. Each farm needs to review how their sow record program calculates weaning age....More
Higher Productivity Levels Tap Sows' Energy Reserves Genetic selection for increased sow productivity, including number of pigs born alive, number weaned...More
The sow gestation environment does influence sow performance, productivity and physiology, according to a preliminary report from the University of Illinois...More
