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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.
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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Anna Johnson
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
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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Dr. Mike Brumm
Brumm Swine Consultancy, Inc.
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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Steven Hoff
Iowa State University
Iowa State University
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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Gonzalo Gonzalez Mateos
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - UPM
Universidad Politécnica de Madrid - UPM
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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Darryl Dsouza
Australian Pork
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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Vasileios Papatsiros
University of Thessaly
University of Thessaly
1. INTRODUCTION Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) since its first report in the late 1980s in Western Europe (Wensvoort et al., 1991) and North America (Keffaber, 1989) has caused a significant economic impact on the global swine industry (Neumann et al., 2005). The aetiological agent of PRRS is an RNA virus (PRRSV) of the order Nidovirales, family Arteriviridae, genus...
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Michael Ellis
University of Illinois
University of Illinois
INTRODUCTION Dead and nonambulatory pigs at the processing plant are a multifactorial problem that can be influenced by pig, facility design, people, management, transportation, processing plant, and environmental factors (Anderson et al., 2002; Ellis et al., 2003; Ellis and Ritter, 2005a), and these losses represent multiple challenges for the entire US food chain....
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Michael Ellis
Michael Ellis and 1 more
University of Illinois
University of Illinois
INTRODUCTION Ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC) is an orally active β-adrenergic agonist that is incorporated into feed rations of finishing swine. Numerous studies have demonstrated the efficacy of RAC in improving ADG, feed efficiency, carcass weight, and dressing percentage, and its negligible effects on meat quality (Watkins et al., 1990; Stites et al., 1991; Uttaro et...
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Christopher Puls
University of Illinois
University of Illinois
Introduction Immunological castration of male pigs with Improvest® (Pfizer Animal Health) allows the production benefits of intact males to be exploited while eliminating the risk of producing pork with boar taint. One aspect that is likely to differ between physically- and immunologically-castrated males is behavior, particularly sexual and aggressive behavior; however, there has been little research carried out...
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Allan Riis Larsen, Area manager at SKOV, speaks about their ventilation systems, especially the Combi-Tunnel ventilation, a system designed for regions with heavy daily or seasonal temperature fluctuations during his visit to their representatives in Mexico, JAT at FIGAP/VIV 2012. ...
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Dr. Mike Brumm
Brumm Swine Consultancy, Inc.
Ad libitum feed and water access is the goal of most North American production facilities. Attention to the many details involved in feeder and drinker selection is the first step in attaining this goal. Number of Feeding Spaces Traditionally, advisors to the swine industry have recommended one feeding space per four pigs for the growing pig and one feeding space for four or five pigs for the finishing pig (MWPS, 1991). However,...
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Larry D. Jacobson
University of Minnesota
University of Minnesota
Introduction During the past few years, there has been growing concern expressed by the public over the continued use of individual stalls in gestation or pregnant sow housing systems. In the United States, this has resulted in legislation by a number of states to ban individual stalls or pressure from retailers like McDonalds and Safeway (grocery food chain) to not purchase pork raised in facilities with sows housed in stalls during...
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Dr. Mike Brumm
Brumm Swine Consultancy, Inc.
As a homeothermic species, the pig maintains a relatively constant core body temperature. When raised in pens with outside access, it aggressively modifies its behavior in response to changing climatic conditions. If conditions are such that it risks losing body heat it seeks shelter, huddle with other pigs, burrow in materials such as small grain straw, eat more feed for increased metabolic heat production, etc. If conditions threaten to elevate body temperature it seeks...
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I have recently taken over a 30 sow piggery. I have ordered 20 extra gilts to increase my sows to 50. I would like to know if it is ok to keep my pregnant sows in one pen (say 20 per pen) and only separate them only a few days (e.g. one week) before they farrow? My second question is what is cheaper between using a boar and using artificial insemination? I know this answer may depend on how much you pay for the sperm in each country, but I am looking more for a general rule of...
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Unlike humans, when pigs are born, they enter the world without any immunity against foreign elements like disease-causing pathogens. Their chance for survival relies heavily on getting enough colostrom—a milk-like substance produced by mammals after giving birth. Newborns that fail to nurse and receive colostrum from the sow within the first 24 hours usually die. That's because piglets are born with limited energy stores, and colostrum also...
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Timely feeder management and maintenance of feeding systems can reduce feed costs — the largest expense of a grower-finisher operation. On most farms, feed cost can range from 65%–75% of the total cost to produce a grower-finisher pig to market weight. It only makes sense to continually look for ways to optimize the use and performance of your most expensive input. Estimates suggest that 2%–20% of feed on swine farms is wasted. Feed...
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