The latest data suggest 2024 is off to a healthier start across the U.S. pig herd. Not only does the Q1 2024 sow and grow-finish data compiled by MetaFarms indicate improved mortality rates, but this past quarter marks the highest quarterly average daily gain (ADG) in the history of MetaFarms data.
Q1 2024 Sow Data Analysis
Many positive takeaways can be found in the latest sow data, shares Brad Eckberg, senior sales account advisor at MetaFarms. Sow mortality decreased 0.5% from 16.3% in Q1 2023 to 15.8% in Q1 2024. Prewean mortality version 2 also improved slightly from 17.7% in 2023 to 17.5% in 2024.
“Calculation for version 2 prewean mortality is based on pigs born alive and weaned from sows that were weaned. It does not require customers to enter in piglet deaths, so it’s a little more accurate from a prewean mortality standpoint,” Eckberg explains.
The numbers also showed a nice improvement in pigs weaned per mated female per year (PWPMF) from 25.6 in 2023 up to 26.3 in 2024, he notes.
Averages for this time period are a useful tool to evaluate. But Eckberg says taking a deeper dive into Q1 from a percentile standpoint is more telling of what’s going on in the pork industry now.
“Percentile comparison shows that variance between the top 10% of farms versus the bottom 10% of farms. I find this very interesting to look at,” he says. “When you look at PWPMF, the top 10% of farms (around 40 sow farms) have a 30.8 average whereas the bottom 10% has a 19.7 average.”
That’s a wide difference of 11 pigs pers sow in one year. What makes that gap so wide? Eckberg says health and genetics come into play, but the numbers help provide an even greater perspective.
The total born average ranged from 16.6 pigs in the Top 10% of swine farms compared to 13.7 pigs in the Bottom 10%.
“That’s a 2.9-pig difference right there, just from opportunity to produce a wean pig,” he adds.
From a born alive standpoint, the Top 10% of farms averaged 14.9 pigs and the Bottom 10% averaged 12.0 pigs. Then, once those pigs are born, the Top 10% of farms have a prewean mortality average of 9.8% compared to the Bottom 10% of farms at 24.3%.
“Ultimately per sow farrowed, the top 10% are at 13.29 pigs weaned per sow farrowed, whereas the bottom 10% is at 9.4 pigs weaned per sow farrowed. Bringing it all together, the top 10% with that 11-pig difference of PWPMF, starts off from a total born and born alive advantage, but prewean mortality really separates the farms even further,” Eckberg explains.
When it comes to sow death loss, the Top 10% are averaging 7.5% in Q1 2024 and the Bottom 10% are at 22.9%.
“Keep in mind that in performance during the January through March time frame, we often see a spike in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus in November and December,” he says. “Reflecting back on the quarterly average, we did lower sow death loss a little from 2023, prewean mortality is about same and we are producing more pigs. Generally speaking, the health in sow farms appears to be better than a year ago. That’s encouraging news and will hopefully translate to the grow-finish side in 2024.”
Q1 2024 Grow-Finish Data Analysis
When looking at grow-finish data, Eckberg says it’s important to note this data reflects groups closed out during this January to March timeframe. Nursery groups in this period started on feed in November through December 2023 and January 2024 and finishing groups closed out in Q1 would have started in August through November 2023. Wean-to-finish groups started in the July through September time frame.
“As we look at quarterly performance, it’s important to understand when pigs are started on feed as you look at one quarter over another quarter,” he says. “It’s important to consider when the pigs were started as weather can have a positive or negative impact.”
He said the big takeaways comparing Q1 2024 to Q1 2023 was an improvement in mortality across all three phases of production.
“The largest decrease in mortality was in the nursery,” Eckberg says. Q1 2024 mortality was at 3.99% compared to 4.54% in Q1 2023, a 12% overall improvement in mortality.
Meanwhile, in wean-to-finish groups, mortality decreased 11% from 7.27% in 2023 to 6.42% in 2024. Finishing had a 4% improvement from 5.53% in 2023 compared to 5.30% in 2024.
Looking at nursery groups, in addition to mortality decreasing, ADG and feed conversion both improved slightly. Weights out of the nursery were up a little over 1 lb., at 53.6 lb. in 2024, he adds.
Another positive highlight is the average finishing ADG for Q1 2024 at 2.03, the highest quarterly ADG in the history of MetaFarms. From an out weight perspective for finishing groups, Q1 2024 came in at 286.6 lb. slightly down 0.8 lb. from Q1 2023, but Eckberg points out that pigs were on feed 1.6 less days in 2024.
“To improve feed conversion, areas to look at include out-of-feed occurrences and late-term deads. When evaluating feed conversion, especially for the finishing side, are you weighing those pigs coming in from a nursery or are you weighing from the source? Do you have an accurate weight of what those pigs are? That can really mess with the way you are looking at your closeouts if you are not weighing your pigs,” he says.
When looking at the percentiles, Eckberg says nursery mortality in the Top 10% was at 1.04% compared to 7.88% in the Bottom 10%. Looking back at Q4 2023, it was 6.41%.
“It’s not abnormal to see that mortality increase from a Q4 to Q1 timeframe. However, it’s also a good reminder that when groups are going the wrong way, they may go really bad for mortality and it’s important to try to mitigate those losses as best we can.”
From a finishing standpoint, mortality was at 2.35% in the Top 10% versus 10.15% in the Bottom 10%.
ADG in the Top 10% was impressive in Q1 2024 at 2.24 compared to the Bottom 10% at 1.80. Wean-to-finish mortality in Q1 2024 was 2.97% in the Top 10% and 11.14% in the Bottom 10%.
“Averages don’t tell you everything,” Eckberg reminds producers. “Percentiles are key to look at to compare your system to others. If you are not in that upper tier, take a hard look and ask yourself why. Consider all aspects of production and leadership. Always strive to be the best, whether you are in a pig-dense environment or not, there are still farms in our system performing well in pig-dense areas. Challenge yourself to not be down and out because of where you are located.”
Editor’s Note: The MetaFarms data represents 1.1 million sows in U.S., Canada and Australia as well as 3,000 nursery close-outs and 8 million pigs started in grow-finish; 2,700 groups and 6.5 million pigs started in finishing, and 1,000 groups and 2.5 million pigs started in wean-to-finish. All sow farms that met the benchmarking rules are included in the data. If a feed conversion is way off, that group would be taken out of the data mix on the grow-finish side. All of the data represented in this dataset have met MetaFarm’s benchmarking criteria. MetaFarms does not release information on its customers, and follows strict benchmarking rules about which data is included in reports.
Read more:
The Superpower the Industry Needs on Swine Farms Now
Sow Death Loss Reaches All-Time High in 2023: What Can Producers Do Now?
Keep Your Eyes Open: Ways to Reduce Wean-to-Finish Mortality
When the Data Gets Overwhelming: Key Metrics to Pay Attention to on the Swine Farm
