Benchmark Magazine Article Archive

Sow longevity is often discussed with relation to gilt development and retention. Foxcroft stated that gilt entry was one of the most critical factors driving sow longevity. (Foxcroft et al., 2006). Over the last six years there has been more emphasis on gilt development, with the implementation of buildings specifically for the growing gilt, diets formulated for lifetime performance and labor trained to specifically work with the gilts.

Within an operation there are so many data points to collect, collate and analyze to improve performance and profitability. From conception rates to feed efficiency and rate of gain to mortality rates, producers are inundated with performance measurements. However, a crucial factor to the profitability equation is often overlooked – employee performance measurements.

Most organizations have a laundry list of how to achieve wean to finish mortality of less than 3%; but only in the last few years have I drilled down further to look at other factors that can be controlled to achieve that benchmark in wean to finish.

Over the past few decades the US swine industry has made quantum leaps in the prolificacy of its sow herds. In the past, when people talked of production levels of 30 pigs/sow/year, they were considered “dreamers”. Today some top managed sow farms are achieving this level of production, and many more are pushing hard on this milestone. To achieve these levels of production the goal must be to wean as many good, healthy pigs as is possible, and a number of farrowing facilities have implemented a variety of Cross-fostering strategies in an attempt to achieve this goal.

For the many farms that finish pigs, the return for all their efforts is not realizable until the pig walks into the slaughter plant. Since we have come to recognize the role that people have in the success of pig production, it seems only natural to ask about the association between truck drivers and dead on arrival [DOAs] at the plant. However, when working in a biological system, few relationships are as simple as they may seem.

In 2011, by early April, CME Lean Hog futures had already achieved an intraday record high for the June futures contract at US $104.10/cwt, only to retest the high at $104.35 by May 2011. The contract eventually moved lower by $12.50/cwt to go off the board at $91.85/cwt. The only futures contract that achieved an even greater high was the 2011 August futures contract, which expired at a new all-time record of US $107.45/cwt.

The term benchmark was originally used by surveyors to refer to points with known elevation and geographic position. All land survey measurements were required to be referenced to the known benchmarks to be legally binding; after all, what good is a set of measures and vectors if you don’t have a known starting point. The benchmark seems rather ancient when we consider the technology we have at our fingertips today with global positioning systems but alas, even the GPS systems use benchmarks on earth to function properly. In many cases our farm production measures are much like a survey with no benchmark or known starting point.

Besides the immediate benefit to PigCHAMP customers, our international benchmarking comparisons provide industry influencers with a bird’s eye view of key production indicators, helping them track pork production trends.

Records systems have been available for more than twenty-five years, with the first activity starting when PigCHAMP© became available in the mid 80s. Record systems help producers track every possible production parameter in an effort to measure, monitor, and ultimately manage these parameters. Routine review of production records can help identify changes before they become clinically obvious or at least obvious enough to warrant a phone call to the attending veterinarian.

More information is available now than ever before (Google is processing more than 24 petabytes per day), but this abundance is not a guarantee of success. Having information at the right time is paramount, as is connecting data that has no apparent relationship.