One of the most interesting sessions at the recent PIC Farm Manager Boot Camp in Danville, Indiana was the one entitled “Environmental Requirements for Optimum Wean Finish Performance.”

Ron Rush, who works in health and technical services for PIC, talked to the group of hog farm managers about the importance of the environment … the buildings… that they’ll be raising those pigs in. Rush said that while he can’t give any specific advice without actually seeing an operation’s barns, maintenance is key.

“I’m just trying to get them some basic general rules for ventilation,” he said. Some of the areas he covered was set points for heating and cooling systems, what pigs’ comfort zones are for optimum performance, and areas of concern, such as maintenance and controller errors. He said some of the most common mistakes are dirty fans, louvres and intakes. Plus, most people don’t understand that pigs can handle cooler temperatures.

“People generally under-ventilate pigs to try to conserve heat, but if you understand that pigs can take cooler temperatures you can bring more air to them without having to run your heat.” Rush added that too many managers either set their temperatures and never touch the controls again or they fidget with them every time they walk by a controller. “It’s important to look at those pigs every day and do want they’re telling you to do.”

You can hear more of my conversation with Ron here:

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As anybody who has ever raised hogs knows, sometimes you lose some pigs. It’s a fact of life in the business, and while sometimes the reason for losses are obvious, many times you just don’t know and just write it off to things happen.

But what if you could find out more about why you lost that pig so you could avoid losing more. That’s where PIC‘s Necropsy Audits come in.

During the PIC seminar this past week in Danville, Indiana, Dr. Amanda Ness, a health assurance veterinarian with PIC, talked about how examining lost pigs can help prevent further losses.

“We go through and necropsy every single dead pig in a system for a specific period of time,” she said. Then, they take take all that information and put it in their database and come back with information and recommendations producers can discuss with their veterinarians. She says early pig care seems to be the biggest cause of pig loss.

She says this necropsy audit is just part of the overall PIC package that managers receive to better manage their herds. “It’s just another customer service we offer to try make our customers as profitable as possible.”

You can read more about the PIC system here. And you can hear my entire conversation with Amanda here:

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OK, so it’s not exactly how I remember boot camp from my days in the Air Force, but our good friends at PIC give out a lot of excellent information in their one-day seminars to help hog farm managers (without anyone making you drop and give them 20 push-ups!).

I recently attended the session they put on in Danville, Indiana, videotaping the speakers for later use.

During the program, entitled “Best Cost Production – Key to Success,” much of the focus was on how to optimize pig operations to make sure farmers are getting the most out of every dollar they put into it.

In between sessions, I caught up with Casey Neill, a PIC nutritionist who talked about reducing sow herd feed costs and nutrition programs that maximize performance. He told me that with today’s tight margins, no one can afford to spend too much without getting any more performance.

“With high feed costs you need to know exactly what kind of nutrient specs are in those diets,” said Neill.

He went on to tell me that overfeeding just a half pound too much to sows could cost a producer an extra $50 per sow. He believes the tips the producers get here could make the difference between operating in the red or counting your profits from the black.

“I think everybody can get at least one good idea to help save some money on their operations.”

I’ll have more to post, but in the meantime, you can listen to my conversation with Casey.

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