Pre-Weaning Mortality Hits Five Year High

The US pork industry benchmarking effort started years ago when the National Pork board recognised the need to have information publicly available for producers and stakeholders, in the hopes of improving efficiency. The purpose of this being that producers can gauge their progress and can see whether they are typically in the top 10%, average, or bottom 10%. This way they can evaluate what needs improving/what is working.

The data

The data, which represents the past five years (2017 – 2021) examined:

• 1.4 million female breeding stock from 543 farms
• 18.8 million nursery pigs
• 19.3 million finishing pigs
• 10.6 million single-stocked wean-to-finish pigs

Key findings

Repeat matings

According to business analyst at MetaFarms, Inc., Brad Eckburg, “Repeat matings hurt a farm,” and as a result farms become less productive. Lower PWM and death has been seen on farms with less repeat matings.

Sow mortality

There are several hundred different reasons why sows die which vary from structural issues to prolapses. Sow mortality (although decreased slightly in 2021) has been an issue for 10 years and has been adversely affected by:

• PRRS outbreak 2020-2021
• Covid effect in 2020
• Health breaks and PEDv 2014

The only way to decrease mortality is to better identify the main reasons to make better progress. Here lies an opportunity for education on sow death as they are not examined for death loss (unlike the grow-finish barn).

Labour limitations

Effect on PWM

Research has shown that PWM is very adversely affected by labour limitations when farm workers cannot assist and attend farrowings. In addition, if piglets cannot get dry or there is insufficient heat lamps, or they cannot access a teat for colostrum. All of these conditions will greatly increase PWM rates within the first 72-hour window.

Effect on sow care

The care of individual sows also decreases due to labour limitations/lack of labour:

• Lame sows aren’t treated
• Sows aren’t moved in a timely manner
• Temperatures are not recorded when it is hot in the barn

PWM gap grows

This data has highlighted a very large PWM gap and so it is an important tool for producers to address how to narrow the gap of top 10% and bottom 10%, and as a result decrease PWM. Some important questions for producers to record when determining piglet death occurring during lactation period include:

• Why are pigs dying?
• How does that transition/effect the nursery or wean-finish stage?
• What does the start of life look like?
•  Are pigs going into nursery and then not making it all the way through due to health/management?

Impact of PRRS & PEDv on PMW

The impact of PRRS and PEDv on PWM is colossal and has been reflected in the percentile difference. It is expected that the percentiles will continue to increase over coming years due to the severity of PRRS and management decisions around PEDv.

Sow farm figures reach five-year high!

It is important to note that although PWM has reached a five-year high; sow farm figures have too! The total born averages, the total born alive figures and the total pigs weaned per sow have all risen. This can be accredited to:

• Genetics companies
• Work from producers to add space to farrowing house for bigger, hardier pigs to send to nursery

In addition, out-weights have increased and days on feed have remained unchanged. Feed efficiency has also been maintained despite tools for nutrient utilisation (such as ractopamine and growth promoting antibiotics in the nursery phase) being removed from producers. Feed efficiency goes hand in hand with sustainability as improving efficiency also improves sustainability in all aspects of production.

Articles

1. https://porkcheckoff.org/research/production-analysis-summary-for-u-s-pork-industry-2017-2021
2. https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/hog-production/dont-miss-bright-spots-us-pork-industry-benchmarking-data
3. https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/hog-production/preweaning-piglet-mortality-hits-five-year-high?mkt_tok=ODQzLVlHQi03OTMAAAGFtRb-w-jRAcoishoX9CifoZM7KNN7hfiEXyqgvv3DaI3m315LrTDUAxRwKPtzx44ko1BtooaevKXOEcbGKBkrwuiuIm_uZCRcer95O2d-3i9yKf323g
4. https://www.porkbusiness.com/news/hog-production/mortality-continues-challenge-pork-producers