productivity – Swine in Minnesota

Surviving Inflation: a podcast

Podcasts are a perfect way to get caught up with new swine information! We are presenting you the latest episode from “At The Meeting… Honoring Dr. Bob Morrison” in collaboration with SwineCast.

Increasing efficiency and productivity are keys to surviving the current inflationary economy–and many producers are well-positioned. The ‘At the Meeting’ team discusses the details with Brett Stuart, a founding partner of Global AgriTrends.

Turnover events of animal caretakers and productivity in Ohio swine farms

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week, we are sharing the results from a recent study conducted under the direction of Dr. Andreia Arruda at Ohio State University. In this project, researchers are looking at the impact of labor turnover on farm productivity.

Key Points

The US swine industry faces critical labor supply issues and is plagued by high rates of employee turnover.
This study investigated the association between employee turnover and productivity using a sample of eleven farrow-to-wean farms in Ohio.
There was a considerable amount of variability in the turnover rate for the year among the participating farms.
The occurrence of an involuntary turnover event (employee was terminated) was significantly associated with improvements in monthly number of pigs weaned per sow and pre-weaning mortality 2-months after the event.

Science page: Troubleshooting poor litter size using the National Swine Reproduction Guide

First, we would like wish you the happiest of holidays from all of us at the University of Minnesota, College of Veterinary Medicine.

This is our Friday rubric: every week a new Science Page from the Bob Morrison’s Swine Health Monitoring Project. The previous editions of the science page are available on our website.

This week we are sharing how to troubleshoot poor litter size within a production system using the National Swine Reproduction Guide, a report by Sarah Bloomer at North Carolina State University.

Key points:

The National Swine Reproduction Guide (NSRG; U.S. Pork Center of Excellence, Des Moines, IA) is a valuable tool to help producers utilize data analysis to troubleshoot reproductive problems in a herd or farm.
Analysis of farrow-to-wean farms within a North Carolina production system revealed extended wean-to-service interval of first-parity sows and poor performance of second-parity sows. NSRG recommendations include reviewing lactation diet composition and first-parity sow lactation feed intake.

Reproductive data from nine farms within one production system from 2011 to 2015 were obtained. Average Total Number Born (TNB) for the production system was 12.4 piglets born per litter, yet litter size was lowest in second-parity sows. Greater than 24% of second-parity sows failed to achieve the decision boundary criteria of 11.5 TNB. Within first-parity sows, 73% of the contemporary groups had greater than 10% of their sows failing to return to estrus within 10 days of weaning.

The following recommendations to improve TNB and reduce Weaning-to-Service Interval (WSI) were created following consultation of the NSRG:

Limit cross-fostering onto first-parity sows
Review lactation diet composition, particularly amino acid content;
Identify methods to promote first-parity sow lactation feed intake. If economically
feasible, farms may also consider breeding sows displaying estrus 7 and 8 days post-weaning on their next cycle.