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Swine management
Pig production is the systematic rearing of pig breeds on scientifically based management principles for economic benefit. The main objectives of pig production are to provide consumers with pig meat and related products and to generate income for farmers.
Pig production plays a significant role in the livestock industry, providing an important source of protein and other valuable products. The systematic approach to pig rearing ensures that the pigs are healthy and well-cared for, which in turn leads to better quality products and higher yields. The focus on scientific principles and efficient management helps to reduce waste and increase profitability for farmers.
A swine producer who masters the art of good management has excellent profit opportunities. This is especially true with disease prevention and control. A healthy herd of good-growing, quality breeding animals — adequately fed and housed — provides maximum profit opportunities for the owner who does not over-spend for facilities and/or feed.
I just got through taking a course on how Modern Swine Housing is fitted for controlling the Inside Environment. There were many formulas and concepts. It left me with the knowledge that you need the help of an Agricultural Engineer to set up the correct Ventilation, Heating and Cooling Systems. These Engineers can also help you modify existing buildings to obtain better environments for your existing hog barns. Agricultral Engineers in the U.S. will probably...
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Introduction Locomotor problems appear as the second most common sow removal reason (2). Claw lesions are an important underlying cause of locomotor problems in pigs (1). In the European Union all pig herds, from 2013 onwards, should loose house the sows after the fourth week of pregnancy. However, the frequency of claw lesions and lameness among loose housed sows was reported higher than the respective...
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Lee J. Johnston from the University of Minnesota, speaks about differences between traditional facilities and those which take into account animal welfare regulations. He also mentions good production practices such as the use of antibiotics responsibly, profer feed processing protocols, etc.....
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Commercial production actually moved away from group housing to sow stalls to improve sow welfare and ensure that sows could be given individual treatment. For the past 30 years the Australian pig industry has investigated sow housing, with increasing emphasis on the welfare of sows in stalls. In 2010 the Australian pork industry, in a landmark decision for an agricultural industry, agreed to voluntarily phase out gestation...
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Introduction The industry definition of "Gestation Stall Free" was that sows and gilts should be kept in loose housing systems from five days after service until one week before farrowing. Associated with this voluntary phase out of sow stalls by industry has been increased emphasis on stall free gestation housing systems by the major retailers. Consequently, the Australian pork industry's move away from the use of sow...
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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 intact as potential breeder boars. There are two primary reasons for feeding out barrows rather than boars in pork production. The first is behavioral. As the age and body size of sexual maturity is reached, boars tend to be more aggressive with pen mates and more difficult to handle...
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Determining how much time animals spend eating could help animal caretakers identify sick livestock, improve management, and establish genetic differences within a herd. But first, a system is needed to monitor animal feeding behavior.
Scientists at the Agricultural Research...
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The Canadian Pork Council and the National Animal Care Council agreed to phase out the use of all gestation stalls for pregnant sows in Canada by the year 2024. *After July 1, 2014 will use open housing for gestating stalls where sows can be kept for 28 days after insemination plus up to seven more days as they are moved to open housing. What´s your...
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As shown in the graph above the hot carcass weight (HCW) of market pigs in Ontario has been increasing over time. Processors have gone from wanting 77 kg HCW in 1977 to almost 100 kg HCW of today. With this increase in weight, producers will need to change the management in the...
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Introduction Rectal prolapse can occur in all species of domestic animals, but it is most common in the swine [1]. In pigs, it occurs if support and fixation mechanisms (fascia, muscles, ligaments) are overcome by pressure (straining caused by constipation, diarrhoea, coughing) or the support tissues are weakened (fat or tumour infiltration, genetics, certain drugs or oedema due to mycotoxins, particularly zearalenone) [2,3]. In sows, a common...
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Abstract Recent research has shown that over half of nitrogen excreted by chickens is lost into the atmosphere via ammonia volatilization before the litter is removed from poultry houses. Large quantities of particulate matter and volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are also emitted from animal rearing facilities. During the past decade we have developed and patented an acid scrubber for capturing ammonia, VOCs and dust...
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The modern methods of producing pigs are efficient methods of producing good meat with a lot of protein. Every step of the production process is planned and specific. I wanted to demonstrate the General Steps of Pig Production in line with my point of view.
(1) Market Potential- where can I sell my hogs? Historically how much do the hogs bring in this market? Can I hedge to lock in a profit?
(2) Land Site Selection:...
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Introduction Transportation is a necessary part of modern U.S.A. pig production. Over 100 million U.S.A. pigs are transported 2 or 3 times from birth to market (USDA, 2005). Pigs are most often transported at weaning from a farrowing barn to a nursery or wean to finish barn. Those taken to a nursery are transported to a finishing site (5 to 9 weeks later). Finally pigs are transported from the finishing site to the processing plant. For these two...
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The annual increase in slaughter weights for barrows and gilts in the U.S. continues unabated. Since 1977 the federally inspected dressed slaughter weight for barrows and gilts has increased an average of 1.3 lb/year (Figure 1), with no evidence of a slowdown in this trend. This annual increase in slaughter weight has challenged production facilities and equipment. The basic facility and equipment needs of importance are space (area per pig), feeders and...
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It is no secret to hog producers that piglet survival is one of the keys to profitability. When I was a “First-Week Farrowing Supervisor” for Agri-Vest, I was very fast to pull pigs to try and decrease the incidence of stillborn piglets. Once a sow had started farrowing, I would pull a pig if 20 minutes passed and there was no piglet born. I would then administer Oxytocin, and usually there were no more complications. Since I...
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INTRODUCTION Lameness in swine, poultry, horses, and cattle have a large negative economical impact to livestock producers (Corr et al., 2003). Multiple definitions of lameness are used. Merriam-Webster (2008) defines lameness as “having a body part and especially a limb so disabled as to impair freedom of movement” while Wells (1984) defines lameness as ”impaired movement or...
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Is there a chance that “Sow Longevity” is a missing element in today’s modern pork industry? Let’s see if keeping a sow for a longer period of time makes sense? Also, could it be possible to adopt some simple, but effective, management tools that will increase “Sow Longevity”? Let’s start by defining “Sow Longevity”. I suggest that we use two measurements those being
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Introduction Traditionally, pig production in Spain has been based on crossing Landrace × Large White dams with lean sire lines, such as Pietrain and then slaughtering gilts and intact males at approximately 100 kg. Yet, over the past 15 yr, the trend has been to increase slaughter weight (SW) to reduce costs and improve marbling (Barton-Gade, 1987; Wood, 1993) and sensory characteristics of...
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Boar taint is one of those pork industry issues that seems to be discussed at length, everyone has an opinion about it and certainly polarises industry when it comes to eliminating it. The consumer has a number of names for boar taint (interestingly and not surprisingly, boar taint is not one of them) including piggy or porky smell, and off-taste. Boar taint is a perspiration/urine and facecal like odour/flavour in pork from entire male pigs. The major compounds...
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