Pig Industry Technical Articles
Article published the May 8, 2008:
Castration of male livestock intended for meat production is a long standing management practice. In North American swine production, castration is essentially universal and only a select few male pigs are left...
Article published the April 17, 2008:
Internal parasites include various types of internal worms that can naturally infect pigs due to oral ingestion of worm eggs from the pig's environment (pen floors, dirt lots, deep bedding, etc.). Once ingested...
Article published the April 15, 2008:
Triticale is a grain developed by crossing durum wheat with rye in order to combine the grain quality, productivity, and disease resistance of wheat with the vigor, hardiness, and high lysine content of rye. Tr...
Article published the April 10, 2008:
Even on well managed hog farms, some animals die before being marketed. For example, a 1,200-sow farm that produces 2.2 litters per sow per year and sells weanling pigs can have need for disposal of 36 sow carc...
Article published the April 8, 2008:
The optimum solution is to buy clean grain for swine and feed the contaminated grain to cattle. Feeder cattle should be able to safely consume levels five to 10 times higher than swine. If contaminated corn mus...
Article published the March 31, 2008:
In the U.S., consolidation and vertical integration of the swine industry has been associated with dramatic changes in breeding herd management. For example, the proportion of sows bred via artificial inseminat...
Article published the March 27, 2008:
Weaning is one of the most stressful times in a pig’s life. Not only does it mean big changes in social, thermal and physical environment, but it also means a huge change in diet form and composition. As a resu...
Article published the March 26, 2008:
Water is an essential nutrient which is often overlooked and given little attention. Plentiful, good quality water is essential for optimum swine production. Pigs obtain water from three sources: water containe...
Article published the March 25, 2008:
A new raw material is pushing into the feed market. In 2005 in the USA alone, 9 million tons of DDGS was used, 75-80% of this as ruminant feed and about 20% was used as pig feed.However, DDGS to DDGS differs
Article published the March 11, 2008:
Individual housing of pregnant females is a common practice in the swine industry. Barnett et al. (2001) estimated that at least 60 to 70% of U.S. sows are housed in stalls throughout gestation. The use of gest...