Midwest Pork Conference- Industry Risks

This week had us on the road to Danville, Indiana for the Midwest Pork Conference.  This is a newer event on our schedule, but the programs are relevant, the meeting is well run, and the the price point keeps it in the budget.  This year, we had five attendees- Bruce, Weston, Julie, Dave and myself.  After the meeting we each picked a top takeaway from the event.  We had so many good things that I can develop a series- each piece addressing a major consideration in our farm's production system.   Like any business, we have to be aware of risks and manage to minimize their impact, or use them to create market opportunities. Our first speaker was Steve Meyer, a top ag economist from Express Markets Inc. Analytics.  Steve talked about 4 macro-level risks to farms.

1. Exports

Exports have been a huge part of agriculture in the last twenty years.  The pork industry relies on our trade partnerships with Japan, China, Canada and Mexico, among other smaller trading partners.  With NAFTA under review, and the TPP dead, our trade is not as secure as it once was.  Without some trading relationships and place, we are at high risk to produce more pork in the USA than we can possibly consume.  At the on farm level, the best we can do is call our representatives urging the resolution to our trade partnerships. 

2. Disease

I have mentioned health challenges on our farm quite a bit, and the last three years have really tested our system.  I have realized the truth in how we can take health our health for granted.  A foreign animal disease entering the United States has huge implications.  Our animals wouldn't have any immunity, similar to when small pox made it's way to North America.  It's something that always seemed too far away to worry about, but after our herd contracted PRRS (something that seemed like it would never happen)  I realize that this is a real threat. 

On the farm it's about recognizing how we can spread things on our own- usually either with people or pig movement- and managing to reduce our risks.  Simple things like washing hands, changing boots, and looking at the youngest pigs first in the day make a big difference.  Also, taking the time to diagnose anything that looks suspicious, instead waiting to see if it goes away in a few days can really help us make better decisions, before we have a big problem due to slow reactions.

3. Labor

Finding the right people and placing them in the right positions is one of the most challenging parts of my job on the farm.  A good employee put in the wrong place can quickly turn into a disengaged team member who is looking for something else.  The time and commitment that is put into developing people makes these bad management decisions on my part really stand out.  Coupled with that is that fewer people want to work with livestock than in the past, partially due to exposure, poor marketing, and farms not willing to pay the going rate for skilled labor.  It may not seem like it, but most of the work on the farm take training, attention to detail, patience, and critical thinking.  These skills all have to developed and should be rewarded. 

Our farm is lucky to be in a supportive community, and we haven't had to deal with many of the labor struggles of our neighboring farms.  However, there is no guarantee this will last, so we constantly are working to secure a work supply by visiting local high schools, and working with two community colleges and one university to provide farm tours, and internships to future agriculturalists.  Even if these things don't directly lead to hire on our farm, they do help to keep our agriculture community going. 

(New Feed Truck!)

4. Feed Costs

Feed is the most expensive input when growing animals.  How the crops do each year in our area greatly effects how well we can raise hogs.  A wet summer may help to produce a big yield, but that doesn't mean the corn, soybeans, and wheat will be of good quality. For example, if corn kernels are lighter than usual, it takes more kernels to feed each animal.  If the kernels are too wet, they attract mold and other fungi, which can make the corn taste bad, and in high levels can cause growth problems.  We do our best to dry and store our corn properly, but we can only get it fresh out of the field one a year, so what goes into the bin is what we will be feeding until the next season. 

To manage this risk, we have a nutritionist (Dave) who looks at each feed ingredient for quality and available supply, and then formulates a feed ration to have the proper mix of energy, amino acids, minerals, and palatability to encourage gut health.  Gut health is EVERYTHING in keeping pigs fed and healthy.  To mitigate mold or fungi problems, we may try feeding more wheat, which is harvested in July, to dilute out any corn problems, since corn fed in July has probably been in storage since October.

Next week, we will look at things we can do to start our pigs off right after transitions- particularly after weaning.

Farm Update: Planting Season

Hello all, things are back to busy as usual on the farm.  We have started field work for the spring!  So far we have done our tillage, manure hauling and started on the planting.  Our early field work was delayed by a cold spring, so we were more anxious than usual to get things rolling, but we have caught up now, and are moving strong.  The unfortunate thing about catching up means that it hasn't rained much lately, which is leaving our ground moisture lower than it normally is for the spring.  This could hurt things later on, but we will just have to wait and see.

(Hauling Manure)

After a hard winter, we are starting to come out of PRRS.  Our farrowing farms (the ones where the babies are born) are running well again, with the sows finally staying bred.  We didn't know when this would happen, so for a little while we have more baby pigs that usual.  That's not a bad thing after such a low time, but it takes more management to keep the pigs on their moms as long as possible, while creating space for new litters to be born.  In our nurseries and finishers, we aren't losing too many pigs, although it is still a little higher than we normally see.  The main difference in these pigs is that they don't grow as nice and even as they did before our outbreak.  This leads to challenges in adjusting the ventilation, water, and feed to fit a large range of pig needs in each group, where usually the pigs in a group are pretty uniform and ready for the same stage at the same time.

Good news moving forward is the piglets being born are consistently born negative for PRRS, which means our sows (mom pigs) are no longer actively shedding virus.  Since we have the sows in stable condition, we are moving to phase two of PRRS clean-up.  This second phase is to get the pigs going into our nurseries (21 days old) to be negative once they are off of mom.  As of our last test some pigs are and some aren't, so the positive pigs infect their peers when they are all grouped together, causing the virus to keep circulating.  We think this is happening because we sometimes mix older pigs and younger pigs in the farrowing house, in order to help the slower growers or runts get a better start.  We also "foster" pigs that can cause spread of the virus: fostering is taking babies off of a sow that has too many (maybe 17 babies, but only 12 working nipples) and put them on a sow who didn't have very many (maybe only 5, but has 12 working nipples).  This way all of the pigs have a better chance for survival, and the sow with only a few pigs produces more milk, which will help her to raise her next litter.

With phase two of PRRS clean-up we will keep all pigs that are born in the same week together, no late fostering (we still can foster within the first day or two after birth), and no holding runts back in the farrowing house.  We will dedicate nursery space specifically for the smallest pigs, so they get more intensive care (this part is usually handled at the farrowing farm instead of at the nursery).  We will also make sure to disinfect everything we use in the farrowing house between litters, where usually we disinfect each day.  This should stop the spread of the virus between little pigs within 3-4 months, baring a re-break of the sows.  It will be a lot of extra work, but it is worth it to get healthy pigs.  If we can successfully make it through phase two, we can start to work towards getting our herd PRRS naive, which is no virus on the farm anywhere.  We still have a long way to go, but things are looking up!