Benchmark Magazine Article Archive

While producers rely on reports for sow records, task management, and performance summaries, many overlook a critical opportunity: harnessing advanced analytics to maximize reproductive efficiency, profitability, and sow longevity.

Natural choline sources occur at meaningful levels in most feed ingredients; which is the main reason why choline is not considered to be a vitamin in the classic sense.

Total number of farms = 174

To reach peak performance productivity, animals need a constant supply of feed. But when that flow of feed is interrupted, it can lead to growth delays, increased mortality, and other health issues - all of which impact feed conversion ratios (FCR).

Today’s modern hyper-prolific sow will often give birth to more piglets than the number of functional teats she possesses. For the farm business, it means that the producers are faced with the decision of having to either allow the sow to try and nurse the additional piglets above functional teat count or create more nurse sows.

Over the past decade, the modern sow has changed significantly. Increased productivity necessitates advancements in management strategies to support performance and longevity. Management improvements can also have a quicker impact than relying on genetics alone.

These are turbulent times for pork producers. Because of that, in addition to benchmarking data, this year our theme for Benchmark magazine is “Building Blocks for the Long Haul, Bringing Longevity to the Farm.”

High replacement rates for gilts and young sows have skewed current parity distributions on many farms towards younger females that haven’t reached their peak productivity.

We’ve been using data to analyze past, current, and future hog producer productivity and profitability for some time.

Total number of farms = 167

Total number of farms = 18

Achieving 30+ pigs per sow per year was once a lofty goal, but today it is a fairly common achievement thanks to genetic improvements in litter size.

For the 2023 issue of Benchmark magazine, we have gone back to basics. Big data is a trendy term today, even though the value of the data has never been in doubt going back to the 1980s when PigCHAMP was first developed at the University of Minnesota College of Veterinary Medicine.

It is a known fact that sows currently do not produce enough milk to sustain the optimal growth of their litters. This is an area that is particularly important and challenging for pig researchers nowadays because the hyper-prolific genetic lines that were developed led to an even greater demand for sows’ milk.

I recall during my graduate studies, that there was a somewhat heated exchange between my professors who were debating the economic value and practicality of my primary research project.