State of the Pork Industry

What’s Driving Grow-Finish Profitability in 2026?

Tue, 31 Mar 2026 15:35:51 GMT

Times change quickly. Fifteen years ago, a standard 2,400-head barn that cost $600,000 now requires aninvestment of nearly $1 million, points out Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems. With much of the U.S. finishing capacity built in the late 1990s and early 2000s reaching the end of its lifespan, the need is growing for expensive mechanical and structural overhauls.

“If you have an aging facility and want to do some remodels, I think there’s definitely a need for good space out there,” Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, explained during the recent State of the Pork Industry Report. “Where your challenge is going to be is if your facility is in an area where it’s surrounded by other pigs and has a lot of disease pressure, the value you’re going to get from integrators or even independent producers that want to use your facility is not going to be very high.”

With what he’s “hearing in the countryside,” porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) have been major issues brought up by people looking for spaces. Too much disease in an area is just too hard to manage.

“Health is king,” Eckberg agrees. “But ultimately, success in the wean-to-finish barn comes down to feed conversion and feed cost per pound of gain. Feed represents about 55% to 65% of the total cost of the pig, so keeping inputs low matters.”

However, he’s quick to point out that people in the barns at the slat level are key to making sure inputs stay low. For example, making sure no out-of-feed occurrences happen, keeping pens appropriately stocked and reducing stress on pigs that are being marketed can make a big difference.

Eckberg and Kuker joined Adam Annegers, JBS sow farm manager, and Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare and biosecurity with Pipestone, on the April 2026 State of the Pork Industry Report. They share tips for contract hog growers to consider this spring.

1. Focus on the first 48 hours.

The transition from the sow farm to the wean-to-finish barn is the most vulnerable time. Success depends on preventing dehydration and ensuring pigs find water and feed immediately.

For Annegers, spending time in the wean-to-finish barns recently has helped him gain a better perspective of the downstream cycle. He believes communication is key.

“Each group of pigs is going to be a little bit different from the last group whether that’s due to health status, diet change or a treatment plan,” he says. “Review the health document with that grower on the group of pigs that’s coming prior to their arrival.”

Make sure the barn is ready to receive pigs from the temperature to ventilation to having the right diet ready to go, he adds.

“The most important thing to do when the pigs arrive is to make sure the pigs don’t get dehydrated,” Annegers says. “They’re used to having mom’s milk right there available to them, so making sure they find water and get started. Have the mats ready for mat feeding multiple times a day. And don’t just throw feed on the mat; get the pigs up and moving.”

2. Better biosecurity equals better production.

Disease management remains one of the most significant operational risks for all pig farmers, contract growers alike. Kuker says he has heard of three sow farms in the past few weeks that have experienced outbreaks of porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

“From what I’m being told, it’s a pretty bad one,” Kuker says. “High mortality, high abortion rate and then those pigs end up in the finishers. It’s very frustrating for those growers because it doesn’t seem like any antibiotic strategy is doing the pigs much good. It’s rather disheartening.”

He says it’s resulting in the producers and pig owners adding a lot of cost to manage with very few results.

“There’s not much the growers can do,” Kuker says. “The ones who end up getting those pigs just have to deal with it. The veterinarians have a good plan to transition those sows back to healthy pigs, but it’s hard when you know that group of pigs you’re getting is going to be a challenge, take a lot of work and not get anywhere close to the results you want.”

The Actinobacillus pleuropneumonia (APP) break from a couple years ago really opened producers’ eyes to ‘Oh, wow. We’re actually moving stuff around in grow-finish on people and equipment,’ Haden says. She believes as the industry moves toward disease elimination with the National Swine Health Strategy, the pressure will increase on grow-finish sites to do the same.

The better biosecurity is in your barn, the better your production will be, Haden adds. In a recent cost of disease project funded by Boehringer Ingelheim and the Swine Health Information Center, they’ve been doing some testing and biosecurity scoring to help determine production impact.

“We’re starting to see some very clear ties between better biosecurity and better production,” she says.

Eckberg says that it’s not hard to see how better biosecurity will also improve key performance indicators.

“Think about it – I’ve got healthy pigs so from a cost standpoint, I’ve got fewer medication costs,” Eckberg says. “I’ve got lower mortality so my labor retainment is higher. I’ve got improved average daily gain because they’re not sick. You name the metric – across the board – production will be better because of better biosecurity and better health.”

3. Look into manure as a strategic asset.

Manure is no longer just a byproduct; it is a significant revenue stream, Kuker says.

“We’re seeing a shift, especially with guys that were looking at expanding their operations or adding another facility, to look into ways to create more revenue from manure,” Kuker says. “Depending on your situation, if you’ve got a neighbor or somebody who wants that manure, we’ve got some people benefiting in the $3 to $5 range per pig space from it. On a 4,000-head site, that could generate $20,000 a year in income for that barn owner.”

Kuker says he is also hearing more and more talk about manure technologies. At a recent grower meeting, he learned about a manure separation process where solids are separated from the liquid. Then, the liquid can be set up to go into a planter for more precise and concentrated manure treatment.

“They are looking at 30 gallons per acre on that application and sometimes seeing an 18-bushel increase in yield by using that specific treatment,” he says. “We also heard about a farmer over in Indiana who was willing to pay $1 a gallon and wanted a million gallons of this stuff. There are definitely opportunities out there on the organic side for this fertilizer. And with the current prices where they are, I think you’re going to see more of this by people looking to branch out in their operations.”

4. Boost truck biosecurity.

“It feels like we control everything at the sow farm, we’re talking about improvements in biosecurity at grow-finish sites, but then we’ve got this black box of transport that’s often not something that we manage,” Haden points out. “A lot of times, it’s a third-party vendor and it’s out of our control.”

Washing and properly drying trucks is not an easy job, she says. In fact, it’s a big ask to get a truck and trailer perfectly clean every time.

“There are a lot of things that have to go right to get that done perfectly,” Haden says. “How do we verify that on a regular basis? How can we make sure every single trailer comes out clean?”

She believes truck audits and verification are a gap in the pork industry that needs to be focused on moving forward to be successful.

Watch the full report here.

Anything That Can Go Wrong, Will Go Wrong in the Winter

Fri, 20 Feb 2026 18:29:02 GMT

Winter weather requires constant vigilance to maintain pig health and barn infrastructure. After all, Murphy’s Law that “anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” is almost always true in the dead of winter.

“During the first real cold of the year, there is always a heater that doesn’t kick on or a water line that freezes up,” said Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, during the recent State of the Pork Industry Report . “Things just happen during that first cold snap.”

Freezing Failures

For Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, the biggest challenge his team faced during the recent snowstorm occurred on an empty site as it started to fill with pigs.

“You try to take all the precautions and do the right things,” Kuker says. “We were starting up a feed line that had some frozen ice in it, then the PVC snapped. Now we had to try to repair a PVC line in the cold temperatures – that’s not fun.”

When the snow starts to fall, Kuker encourages producers to make sure they clear snow away from tunnel curtains to prevent gaps and check pit fans for drifts to ensure proper airflow. Additionally, monitoring snow load on roofs is essential to prevent structural collapse.

(National Pork Board and the Pork Checkoff)

“Winter brings a lot of challenges and keeps you on your toes, and that’s just outside the barn,” Kuker says. “That doesn’t even take into account inside the barn.”

Production Priorities

Inside the barn, ventilation is key to managing humidity and preventing disease, he says. Producers should monitor probe temperatures to ensure they are not in front of inlets, which causes heaters to run longer than necessary. Minimum fan speeds must be set correctly to balance heat retention with air quality.

Ventilation, feed and water quality are important every day to keep pigs performing well, emphasizes Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems.

To maximize profits, consider increasing breed targets by 5% to 10% during the fourth quarter to ensure full-crate utilization for high-value summer markets, Eckberg adds. Focus on body condition and parity distribution to maintain high farrowing rates.

Stress and Survival

Eckberg reminds producers that cold stress is a potential trigger for disease. During transport, cold stress increases mortality. What can producers do to protect pigs from cold stress during transport?

Start by making sure that trailers have adequate bedding and closed sides.

“We need to make sure that we’ve got the sides closed up enough that the route is safe,” says Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare and biosecurity with Pipestone. “We need to make sure we’re not going to get stuck en route, that we’re moving loads if we need to off of these days that are so cold, or where there’s a chance that we’re going to get stuck in a snowstorm and not make it to the barn.”

Cold stress creates significant implications.

“If pigs get cold stress and then things like drafting or heater issues arise, that can trigger more issues,” Haden says. “If you get the pigs to the barn and your heater goes out for a couple hours in this type of cold, we need to make sure we’re responding quickly, because that can impact the health of a pig, too.”

“If pigs get cold stress and then things like drafting or heater issues arise, that can trigger more issues.”

Cara Haden, DVM

What’s Your Backup Plan?

She says it’s also important to note Scott Dee’s snowball experiment proved that porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) and porcine epidemic diarrhea virus (PEDV) love blowing snow.

“They can move in blowing snow. They can move on vehicles that are covered in snow,” Haden says. “This time of year, we need to be super diligent.”

But ice makes diligence more challenging, she adds.

“When we go to disinfect a chute, trailer or a truck, disinfectants need to dry in order to function appropriately,” Haden says. “We need to make sure we’re either getting those in a warm enough environment that we can dry, that we’re adding propylene glycol along with our disinfectants, and ultimately are getting things as clean as they need to be.”

Create a backup plan, she advises.

“If your lines freeze and you’re supposed to be disinfecting a chute or a trailer, what will you do?” Haden asks. “There are products like ChloroSorb, which is a dry powder that we can use. We’ve got to have those plans in place so that we don’t end up having dirty trucks or dirty trailers going down the road because of some sort of freezing issue.”

Watch or listen to their entire discussion that delves into the impact of winter on your operation, wean pig health and nutrition tips, and conversations taking place at trade shows and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report .

The ‘Lift and Shift’: Managing Pigs and People Through Winter Disease Pressure

Wed, 04 Feb 2026 16:20:07 GMT

It’s that time of the year where you brace yourself for the worst when the phone rings, says Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, during the recent State of the Pork Industry Report.

“I call it the lift and shift,” Annegers says. “You can have your schedule all lined out, and then the phone rings and redirects you. Winter means being flexible because diseases thrive in this weather.”

Raising pigs in southeast Iowa comes with its fair share of health challenges and 2026 is no different. Now is a critically important time to make sure you provide needed support to your team, he says.

“At the onset of a health challenge in the sow barn, there’s not always a lot we can do to have a better outcome for the piglets,” Annegers points out. “It’s difficult on the teams. Focus on keeping your team motivated to get through difficult times knowing that at some point, disease pressure will lessen. Then, they can get back to raising a lot of good, healthy pigs again.”

This time of the year is always challenging, but he’s optimistic about what’s ahead.

“Pig prices are through the roof right now,” Annegers says. “Saving every pig and raising every pig that we can is important right now. Working with your teams to control what they can control helps. It’s time to be a big cheerleader.”

When PRRS Doesn’t Look Like PRRS

Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, had a strange incident occur in a barn recently.

“We had a group showing some clinical signs – it actually looked like a strep was going on,” Kuker explains. “We’re about 12 weeks on feed, which is rather late for us to be seeing signs of strep, but I had pigs down, kind of paddling, red, puffy eyes, all the classic symptoms. It also looked like maybe a late myco lameness issue.”

His team saw enough issues going on that they took some tissue samples and those samples came back positive for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

“This was surprising to me, considering most of the pigs (if we got to them soon enough and treated them) responded to antibiotics fairly well,” Kuker says. “We had minimal death loss, but it came back as PRRS 1-12-2, a strain which I hadn’t seen in our area at all.”

They ran some antibiotics in the water and administered some antibiotics by injection. Over the course of a few weeks, they lost 0.75% to 1% of their pigs.

“It really wasn’t terrible, but it keeps us humble, knowing this virus can change and do different things than we least expect,” he says.

They also experienced an outbreak late last fall where they saw pigs with purple ears, Kuker adds. The mortalities had purple bellies which automatically made their team think it looked like Actinobacillus suis (A. suis). But it came back PRRS positive.

“I’m glad we’ve got a lot of good veterinarians out there who can give us some recommendations on what to do,” he says “I just wish we could find a way to eliminate it. But don’t see that coming anytime soon.”

PRRS Isn’t Going to Let Up

Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare and biosecurity with Pipestone, says the Bob Morrison Swine Health Monitoring Project has been a super helpful tool to see where the industry is at as a whole.

“Right now, cumulative incidence of PRRS as of January 21, is 8.2% which is actually pretty low,” Haden says “But I think it’s important to note that we often see two peaks every year. It looks like we’re maybe through that fall-winter peak, but there is the expectation that we will see a spring-summer peak again in 2026. If we follow the pattern of the last couple years, we’re going to see more PRRS this year than what we’ve seen so far.”

The number of PRRS strains continues to cause heartache across the pork industry.

“We’re getting more information about PRRS Lineage 1C strains being incredibly devastating and very virulent, seeing significant clinical signs with this particular virus family,” she says. “We’re also getting more information about increased shedding times and this virus being more difficult to eliminate from sow farms. These viruses are sticking around in the pig longer, which I think is super frustrating.”

Control What You Can Control

Fortunately the U.S. pork industry is entering a time where it may be possible to spend a little more money to help prevent disease breaks.

“We can’t always control the fact that pigs might break with a lateral PRRS introduction at some point during the growing period, but we can make sure that they don’t break with ileitis,” Haden says. “We can make sure they don’t break with salmonella or that they don’t break with circovirus.”

Trying to pinch pennies on vaccines by partial dosing or foregoing them all together is a dangerous game.

“I’m seeing a lot more freedom from producers to do the things that veterinarians would love to see them do all the time,” Haden says.

Be sure to record it and keep 12 months of documentation of vaccination treatments as required for PQA site assessments, says Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems.

“Then use that information to ultimately determine how it is working for you,” Eckberg says. “I’m a big fan of learning from successes and failures. Use the data you are keeping to help with decision making, maybe even for future changes in the protocols.”

Watch or listen to their entire discussion that delves into the impact of winter on your operation, wean pig health and nutrition tips, and conversations taking place at trade shows and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report.

The Fall Effect: 4 Things You Can Do Now to Make Your Farm More Profitable

Tue, 04 Nov 2025 21:04:11 GMT

Nothing says “it’s fall” like pit pumping and doing everything possible to keep your pigs healthy as colder temperatures settle in.

“Porcine epidemic diarrhea (PED) does not look very good right now. I’m super sad to see the amount of PED that we have prior to a lot of pumping getting done,” Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone, said during the Q3 State of the Pork Industry Report .

Don’t Underestimate the Danger of Manure

Haden can’t caution people enough to follow manure management guidelines and do everything possible to keep disease out of barns this season.

“Pretty much all of the nasty pathogens that we don’t want are shed in feces,” Haden says. “There’s been a variety of studies that have looked at different manure storage and different temperatures. The bottom line is, there is a certain amount of virus that can survive for several days, and possibly several weeks, even a month, depending on the situation. We need to look at every bit of manure that we see as porcine reproductive and respiratory (PRRS) positive, PED positive, Senecavirus A positive, because it’s very likely that it is.”

A recent study by Ana Paula Poeta Silva and Daniel Moraes, working with the principal investigators Daniel Linhares and Gustavo de Sousa e Silva of Iowa State University provides evidence that the processes associated with manure pumping and land application pose a risk for the introduction of PRRS into pig sites. Researchers also said there was plenty of PED virus RNA detected in pit samples from most herds visited despite the absence of clinical disease or PED virus in oral fluids. Read more here.

“Getting disease breaks around the time of pumping is about the worst time when you’ve got fresh shed going into the pit,” Haden says. “That manure is very likely going to have viable virus in it. We need to not drive through it and walk through it. Go around the block, avoid it, be aware of when it’s happening.”

Manage Heavier Weights in the Fall

Cooler temperatures and the availability of new crop corn often mean pigs grow faster. Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, says that’s been a common question on company production calls lately: How soon will we have new crop corn?

“We’ve got two separate feed mills and two different timelines,” he says. “I do a lot of the load projections for our customers. I bake those factors into my load projections, knowing that once I get new crop, I’m going to try to sell quicker so I don’t get too heavy.”

He says communication is key and vital. They saw a huge impact recently when temperatures dropped from 85-degree days to 70-degree days, along with pigs being fed the new crop corn.

“Even with all that said and all that planning, we still got behind,” Kuker says. “We didn’t get a lot of the loads that we were asking for, because everybody was asking for them. Three of the four plants that we send pigs to are all receiving pigs over 300 lb. We’re struggling to try to get the weights down and get the right number of pigs out.”

Some plants have recently started Saturday kills heading into the holiday season to alleviate those challenges, he says.

Avoid Transportation Loss

Transportation loss has a big impact on a farm’s bottom line and overall performance. During the summer, transport loss is about 0.25% for a closeout group, which is about 2.5 pigs per thousand, says Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems. During the summer, this can fluctuate a bit, maybe gain a 0.1%.

“As fall comes, this can change again. So, don’t forget about the transportation part, especially with feeder pigs, making sure those trucks are getting buttoned up for travel and the cold weather,” he says. “As weights fluctuate, we have to think about what we can do to minimize any transportation loss and find that sweet spot for marketing throughout the whole year.”

In addition to taking pigs in smaller groups to avoid transport loss, Kuker reminds people to take their time and make sure pigs have a clean, dry surface to walk on when loading bigger pigs.

“When you get a pig past 250 lb., all your costs are sunk,” he says. “You’ve got a lot of time and money into that pig. The last thing you want is for it to go down on the trailer. We try to mitigate this by doing audits, being with the team when they’re loading pigs and helping them out when needed to make sure the process goes smoothly.”

Create a Sense of Ownership Before It’s Too Late

Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, says “ownership” can really help improve the health of a barn right now.

“The farms that I get to work with are in extremely high, dense areas,” Annegers says. “We can count finisher roofs from multiple of our sow farms. We’ve seen some really good success with overall sow production numbers. Our PSYs are definitely higher than what we could imagine. That’s taking buy-in and ownership from everybody on the farm. It really goes back to being consistent and executing at a high level.”

He challenges his teams to inspect what they are expecting in regard to biosecurity.

“If trucks coming to the farm look dirty, send them away,” he says. “If there’s something not right, don’t load the truck because we know some pigs come back and forth. If visitors or maintenance teams are coming to the farm, be with them when they’re bringing their tools and supplies in.”

Inspecting what you are expecting requires farms to take more ownership into every step of the biosecurity process. But when people do buy into it, Annegers says the result is a much higher level of execution.

“Biosecurity is just reducing the risk to your farm,” he adds. “The more we can reduce our risks and the more that we take ownership of what we can control, the better results we’re going to see.”

Watch or listen to their entire discussion that delves into the impact of management decisions, health concerns on the horizon, barn remodeling and building considerations, and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report.

Don’t Let Employees Slip Away: 2 Ideas to Keep Your Team Happy

Wed, 06 Aug 2025 16:53:16 GMT

Employee retention is of top importance in pork operations. As the challenge to find qualified labor continues, employers want to make sure they keep the employees they invest time and energy into finding and training to take over important roles on the farm.

During the latest Q2 State of the Pork Industry Report , the experts discussed a couple ways they are investing in employees.

1. Reward overtime.
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, works in a coop where the team consists of people representing many areas from agronomy and energy to accounting and pork production.

“We instituted a policy when we were having a hard time getting employees around COVID,” Kuker explains. “We’ve always had an overtime policy, but we actually added to it, and we added double time for Sundays. It’s been a useful tool for us.”

Not only has it helped The Equity attract more candidates, he believes it has also helped them retain employees.

For Kuker, working through the TN process with employees has allowed him to receive feedback from lawyers and recruiters who say the ability to pay overtime and actually offer overtime hours is attractive to many candidates.

“I wouldn’t say we’re at the highest level for initial starting offers,” he says. “But when we put down that we average 45 to 50 hours a week, and we pay overtime, that’s been very helpful for us to get good candidates.”

Of course, he says the flip side of it is they have to manage hours carefully so they aren’t paying too much overtime.

“We have certain budgets and certain thresholds we need to be under,” Kuker adds. “We still make sure we’re productive, but a happy worker that’s getting overtime has been really beneficial for us.”

2. Let people know you care.
When it’s blazing hot out and temperatures are wearing down pigs and people, there’s something to be said for giving employees a little boost. One of the ways that Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, shows his team that he cares is by providing Gatorade packets, oranges or popsicles throughout the day.

“We make sure we take time during our morning meetings to talk through things like the weather that may impact their well-being, too,” Annegers says. “It can be as simple as, ‘Hey, it’s going to be hot today. You guys watch out for each other and take care of each other.’ Providing those constant reminders that they are very important to us as well as the animals.”

Everyone has a job to do, he says. But there’s always time to make sure employees know that they are valued and that their care is a priority.

“I really think that goes a long way with them,” he says.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion with Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone; Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, and Jennifer Shike, brand leader for Farm Journal’s PORK, that delves into the impact of hog prices on management decisions, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) woes and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report.

How PRRS Has Made the Summer of 2025 Frustrating and Unforgettable

Thu, 31 Jul 2025 19:13:02 GMT

Despite the layers and layers of biosecurity in place, porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) keeps finding a way through. It’s very challenging for farms and veterinarians trying to fight this costly disease.

“A couple years ago, I felt like a good vet every summer. Then, every winter, I felt like a terrible vet because of PRRS and influenza,” Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone, said during the Q2 State of the Pork Industry Report . “It seems like these challenges are not seasonal anymore. It has been a really, really frustrating summer for the industry.”

She says modern strains are different than what the industry has battled in the past. Recent research led by Christine Mainquist-Whigham at Pillen Family Farms and Daniel Linhares at Iowa State University’s College of Veterinary Medicine have described extended shedding periods and times where animals have started shedding again after previously negative tests.

“We’ve got a summer intern project right now where we’re looking at gilt shedding,” Haden says. “We’re really frustrated with the amount of time that some of these gilts are shedding after intentional exposure during a closure.”

Are We to Blame?
Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, wonders if the industry is “doing it to ourselves.”

“Part of it is veterinarians have done their jobs too well, and we’ve eliminated all the little weak viruses out there,” Annegers says. “Viruses adapt and they survive. As we continue to eliminate the little softies out there, the viruses that remain become a lot tougher. You definitely feel the effects more when they come in now.”

PRRS virus percentage of positive submissions

(SHIC (ISU, UMN, KSU VDLs; SDSU-ADRDL, OH and Purdue ADDLs))

There’s no question nature finds a way, Haden says.

“We put in filters and do all sorts of stuff to keep it out, but PRRS is desperate to get into our pigs,” she adds.

Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, says people talk a lot about biosecurity, but wonders how often “we shoot ourselves in the foot” having to deal with issues that could ultimately be fixed.

“My guess is nine times out of 10,” says Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity. “When you see the same virus being moved around to multiple locations, you need to look inward and ask how are we moving this virus around?”

The PRRS breaks Kuker has been seeing over the past several years have been caused by different strains. That’s even more frustrating because it’s similar to a farm that’s 10 miles away, but it’s just a little different, he says.

Execute the Basics
The Equity is focusing on reinforcing its practices to make sure they are doing what they have said they would do when it comes to biosecurity and disease prevention.

“I think you get to certain stages of production on the wean-to-finish side, and we think, ‘Well, the pigs are bigger, they’re healthier and it’s maybe not as important.’ Then, you’re a week away from topping the site out, and you bring PRRS in. You can’t medicate those pigs at that point and it’s a mess.”

One area he thinks the wean-to-finish side can be a little lackadaisical about is in the disinfection of supplies.

“On the grow-finish side, there’s so much low-hanging fruit,” Haden agrees. “I mean, Adam’s skin is raw from showering into sow farms. I’ve showered like 14 times this week. Then, we go in and out of grow-finish barns in a very different way. We have different standards for grow-finish, but the reality is, there’s PRRS all over the place.”

Although Annegers says this summer has been relatively nice to his sow farms, he’s knocking on wood as he knows it’s not been nice to many of his colleagues in the industry.

“Consistently executing the basic protocols at a high level is very important in all aspects, from employee entry to mortality removal,” Annegers says. “Sometimes we overthink the basics. Humans are really good at making things more complicated than we need to make them. Taking a step back and observing processes and you will pick up on those things where just a slight change can make a huge difference to a farm.”

Haden says this conversation highlights that despite having PRRS in the U.S. for a long time, the industry still knows very little about this virus. She is optimistic about the insights that can be gleaned from whole genome sequencing and focusing research dollars on immune system response.

“I’ve heard some stuff about some different tools coming to the market, potentially to really help us with this virus,” Haden says. “Man, we need it. We need research. We need answers. We’re certainly not at the point where we know exactly what to do as an industry yet to get rid of this.”

Where Does Welfare Weigh In?
The pork industry is data-driven and does a great job tracking average daily gain, feed conversion and more. But Haden says one of the things it fails to track are welfare metrics and outcomes for the animals.

“How much lameness do we have in the barn? How many animals are retreating? Farrowing complications? What are the outcomes looking at treatment success?” she asks. “That’s been something I’ve been really focused on the last couple months running reports.”

The numbers have been eye-opening, Haden says. For example, she’s been looking at PRRS breaks to find answers to an important question: Is it worth it to treat individual animals during a PRRS break?

Looking at treated animals and outcomes 10 weeks before the PRRS break and 10 weeks after the PRRS break, she said the data shows it’s absolutely worth it.

“We can see really good treatment success rates in the midst of a really nasty PRRS break,” Haden says. “We learned during at least one particular PRRS break, it caused a lot of lameness. We’re tracking these lameness metrics and how many animals we are treating for lameness and how many treatment days it requires to get animals better. We saw that PRRS massively increased both lameness and treatment days.”

She says knowing that allows her to be able to warn their teams that they are seeing this trend, but they’ve run the numbers already and know it’s worth it to treat the animals.

“As an industry, this data is not hard for us to grab up and start being able to utilize to make some better decisions,” she says.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion that delves into the impact of hog prices on management decisions to paying employees overtime and more in the Farm Journal’s PORK State of the Pork Industry Report.

Don't Lose Focus: Three Areas Where Pork Producers Should Stay Diligent

Thu, 19 Jun 2025 12:40:47 GMT

Genetics, seasonality and human factors all play a role in getting a pork chop on a plate. And while there is no fail-safe playbook in raising hogs, three pork industry experts are sharing the production areas they would encourage producers to focus on most.

1. Health

Biosecurity is big part of the swine industry culture. But even with all the efforts made to keep disease out of barns, it can still happen. Disease management is the No. 1 topic Cara Haden, Pipestone veterinarian, talks with producers about.

One thing Haden is currently looking at is the rise of PRRS. She says even though monthly data reports aren’t showing a major increase in the disease, she’s hearing there’s a lot out there.

“We used to think we only had to worry about it in the winter months. But the last several years, we’ve seen a second peak show up in June and July,” she says. “This year is going to be no different based on what I’m hearing from people.”

As more workers and vaccinating crews are going between sites, there’s room for biosecurity improvement when it comes to disinfecting equipment. PRRS is airborne, but other bacterial pathogens, like APP, spread on people and equipment.

“I think our sow farms execute things really well — shower in, shower out,” Haden says. “We’re being really careful about equipment coming in, and we’ve got downtime for visitors. The low-hanging fruit of our industry is the grow-finish sites.”

2. Data collection

Having real-time data is crucial to know where there could be a breakdown in the process.

“From a data standpoint, it’s getting that right information out to the right people in a timely fashion and what’s relevant to them. If you’re not using real-time data — especially for mortality — things can get really out of hand,” says Brad Eckberg, MTech Systems.

Eckberg explains there are different factors producers can use to mitigate costs. When it comes to health, data can identify a certain flow, area or person needing attention.

Randy Kuker, director of livestock at The Equity, adds using data to understand where the problems are coming from leads to finding solutions.

“If there is a breakdown in the process at the sow farm, it all rolls downhill to finishing. We’ve got to deal with what gets sent,” he says.

Kuker’s management company is seeing some integrators struggling with health, while others have some high-performing groups. They are looking at the data and getting creative in trying to determine how to help.

“Higher-end sow farms do provide the bigger wean pigs,” he adds. “I see pigs coming off the truck at 10 lb., and I see pigs coming off at 15 lb. or 16 lb. It’s just a completely different game when you have a more viable, healthy, bigger pig.”

3. Transportation

When transporting pigs, Eckberg reminds truckers and caretakers to have everything in place. That includes wood shavings and panels that match the size of the pigs.

“It’s the caretaker bringing the appropriate number of pigs to the truck, the lighting and a lot of different things that go into transportation — especially from a market standpoint,” Eckberg says. “When you look at the analytics, you put so much time, effort and money into these market hogs. The amount of focus on transportation loss — and who’s focusing on it — needs to improve quite a bit.”

Kuker suggests making an effort to prep hogs before moving them can end up saving time in the long run. For example, moving pigs from the back of the barn closer to the front ahead of time.

“That way you’re not trying to move them 330 feet in 30 minutes,” he says. “If you have slick floors on top of it, and inexperienced workers or workers who want to move faster, that’s when things happen.”

He cautions not having the right set up can lead to injuries.

“You put 160 days into getting that pig [to market] and because you’re in a hurry and didn’t prepare, that pig’s going to go down. That producer is going to lose a hog at the last minute,” Kuker says.

Eckberg adds, “You’re almost to the finish line. Don’t lose that focus.”

Listen to more of this conversation where the experts further discuss:

Water as a risk for disease transmission
Effects of Prop 12
How to keep morale up in the barns
The importance of honest feedback in monitoring progress

Your next read: Remembering Darrell Anderson: A Life Filled with Faith, Livestock and Leadership

Experts Share Ideas to Improve Your Swine Operation

Wed, 23 Apr 2025 21:58:05 GMT

The collaborative nature of the pork industry is one of the reasons why it’s such an exciting and fast-paced place to be. The ability to share ideas and learn from others’ experiences helps the greater industry achieve more in a shorter amount of time. Here are four ideas for your farm from the experts featured each quarter in the State of the Pork Industry Report.

1. Post the score.
The first six months in a pig barn can be challenging for new employees. It’s easy to take things for granted and expect them to know things they don’t, says Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS. After all, he adds, everybody has a first-day or first-year experience.

One of the opportunity areas that Annegers and his team is focusing on at the farm is doing a better job of posting the score and sharing information with his team.

“Our teams want to know the goals and where we want to go,” Annegers says. “We are trying to post the score to show here’s where we’re at now compared to where we want to end up. I think there was a lot of disconnect from boots-on-the-ground caretakers understanding what our targets and opportunities are. The more information we can share, the better everybody understands what we’re after.”

He also believes it’s a benefit to not get more buy in, but for the team to understand the why in farm decisions.

“Being able to explain our protocols are here for a reason, and if we follow these right every day, here are the results that we expect, you to get is pretty powerful,” he says. “Then, when the team can reach and exceed those goals, they buy into the process and grab onto it.”

2. Celebrate the wins.
For Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, one of the best things he’s done with his team lately is hold a percent-in-the-box competition.

“We gave them access to the data when we were actually receiving that data,” Kuker explains. “Quarterly or annually, we reward the top marketer, whoever got the best close-out for percent in the box.”

Kuker points out that his team doesn’t own any of the pigs that they sell. They raise them for other people.

“But when you make it a friendly competition and something to go after, there’s a pride factor,” Kuker says. “We went out and purchased a cheap WWE championship belt. The winner gets to walk around with the belt and take pictures. We also take them out for pizza or something like that. It’s just something fun that everyone rallies around.”

3. Measure animal welfare.
“When I think about interesting, innovative things in the barn we’re doing, one thing that comes to mind is that we’ve been pushing for welfare metrics,” says Cara Haden, DVM, director of animal welfare at Pipestone. “We improve on the things that we measure. We don’t do a lot of measuring of welfare metrics, so we’ve been tracking treatment success rates, trying to benchmark how many sows you’re treating, for what reasons and what your success rate is.”

She says this opens the door to really good conversations.

“It’s hard to just tell people, ‘Hey, treat more.’ It’s much easier to have the conversation of, ‘Hey, you’re benchmarking lower than some of the other farms in the system. How can we get you so you’re more competitive with everybody else?’” Haden says. “To me, that’s a direction our industry needs to go.”

4. Take advantage of technology.
Mobile data entry makes tracking data so much easier when you are entering your treatments into a record system, Annegers says.

“It’s very quick and easy to run a few reports and sit down with the team to discuss,” Annegers says. “I’d highly recommend a mobile entry record system for treatments as well.”

Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, says he’s had several conversations recently that were focused on technology needs in the wean-to-finish side of the grow-out phase.

“There are tools out there today from a sow farm perspective that will say, ‘Here’s some tasks you need to do,’” Eckberg says. “I think that’s been very helpful for the industry and producers. It’s cool some of those tools are out there.”

But the wean-to-finish side needs more love, Eckberg says.

“That’s where the money is really lost or won,” he says. “Obviously the sow farm side is important because of the trickledown effect of what happens in wean-to-finish. We need a tool or a scoreboard, if you will, to help answer the question of ‘where should I put my immediate focus?’”

Eckberg believes a tool that could help point out what needs to be done, upcoming events, and vaccination protocols would be helpful in the wean-to-finish barn.

“As well as real-time checklists, some comparisons against flow sites and giving some of that real time feedback to the caretakers, as well as from the support staff, to help communicate and create more visibility,” he says.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion ranging from health issues on the farm to what’s happening in Washington, DC, on YouTube. These experts share their perspective on what’s been happening on farms in Q1 2025 and what’s coming this summer.

Your Next Read: 5 Ways to Protect Your Farm from Animal Activists

5 Ways to Protect Your Farm from Animal Activists

Thu, 17 Apr 2025 21:14:09 GMT

An undercover video filmed in a hog barn was recently released. The video never showed any sign of animal abuse, says Cara Haden, DVM and director of animal welfare at Pipestone. Although she’s thankful it wasn’t a Pipestone farm, she says it’s still incredibly frustrating that someone got into a pig barn and produced a video with the intention of making the pork industry look bad.

“Apparently this undercover person couldn’t find any abuse going on at the farm, so what they had to do is take normal things that happen on farms and try to make them look bad,” she explained during the April 2025 State of the Pork Industry Report. “Please don’t go watch the video as we don’t want to drive any views.”

She says it’s frustrating that it’s not enough to have perfect welfare and that it’s not enough to have no abuse or animal welfare concerns on your farm.

“If someone gets in, they can still try to make things look bad no matter how good your farm is,” Haden says.

Although the video doesn’t appear to be manipulated, the video content was produced to manipulate the viewer. For example, the video tries to say the sows are too long for their crates, when it’s evident the sows had plenty of room at the other end of the crate, Haden says.

“The video talked about gestation stalls and how the sows can’t turn around,” Haden says. “From a welfare professional standpoint, there are gives and takes to those sorts of things. There’s pros and cons to that system. It is not always bad from an animal welfare standpoint, there are some great things about stalls and the ability to control the amount of feed and more.”

The truth is animal activists don’t care about improving animal welfare, Haden points out. They want to end animal agriculture.

How can you prevent a similar incident happening on your farm? Haden and experts on the State of the Pork Industry Report shared five things you can do to help keep animal extremists at bay.

1. Educate your team.
One of the most important things producers can do to avoid a situation like this is to focus on the education of all employees, but especially new hires, says Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS.

“Have multiple discussions on welfare and animal handling topics,” he advises. “Most importantly, reinforce if you see something, say something. We want people to report any type of issue right away, so it doesn’t grow into something bigger.”

2. Carefully screen potential employees in the interview process.
Keeping animal activists out starts with a thorough interview and screening process of new employees. Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, says their team has implemented a committee approach to interviews.

“It can be somewhat intimidating to a production tech or anybody coming in to have a committee of people asking questions, but we think it’s in the best interest of the farm,” Kuker says. “We start off the interview by stating that we have a zero-tolerance animal welfare abuse policy and gage their reactions off of that.”

When the interview is over, the committee has a debrief, he says. They address questions including: Was there anything in the interview that was said or done that gave us pause as to whether we thought that the individual interviewing across the table from us had ulterior motives?

“I think we get into a position where we need a warm body now, and we don’t think of those things in the interview process,” Kuker says. “By having a committee approach, we always keep these things in the front part of our minds.”

3. Keep a vigilant watch in the barn.
Haden encourages producers to remember the basics. Locking doors is important and so is hiding your key in a good spot, she adds. Make sure door codes are changed regularly.

“Protect what comes into the farm,” Haden says. “I think it’s crazy, but there are recording devices that can go in glasses and all sorts of things, so we need to be aware of what’s coming into our farms.”

4. Look for suspicious activity.
Pay attention to caregivers who hang out in sensitive areas, especially if they’re not supposed to be there. From castration and processing to euthanasia and hospital spaces, those areas need extra close attention.

“If they’re not a caregiver trained in euthanasia yet, they shouldn’t be hanging out in the euthanasia or mortality area,” Haden says.

Other red flags include people who want to work on your farm who have no reason to be in the geographic region of your farm, she adds.

“If someone wants to work in South Dakota, and they have no reason to be there because they have no connection to the area, that’s suspicious,” Haden says. “If they’ve got higher education, but it’s not in the swine space, what are they doing trying to work at a pig farm?”

5. Tell your story.
When the first videos came out 15 to 20 years ago, it was really surprising, says Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems.

“I think we did a great job from an industry standpoint to really educate those from outside the industry that this is not the normal,” Eckberg says. “We are not like this. It became an opportunity for many great companies to open up their doors to outsiders. Come in, see what we actually do on a day-to-day basis and how much we care for those animals.”

Let people know the importance of continual training and certification for your farm such as PQA Plus certification and adhering to We Care ethical principles.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion ranging from PRRS to H-2A challenges to unique things they’re doing on the farm on YouTube or anywhere podcasts are found. These experts share their perspective on what’s been happening on farms in Q1 2025 and what’s yet to come this year.

Catch up on past State of the Pork Industry Reports .

4 Areas AI Could Benefit Pork Industry

Thu, 13 Mar 2025 21:10:21 GMT

Technology in hog barns isn’t new, but the use of artificial intelligence (AI) adds another element to the possibilities for barn and pig management. In the latest State of the Pork Industry report , four experts weigh in on how AI could possibly be integrated into the industry.

1. Daily operations
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, sees a logical place for AI in data collection.

“A lot of our controllers and systems that we keep track of on a daily basis in wean to finish are probably going to be around feed and water,” Kuker says. “Using AI as a predictor for health issues or potential health issues, I think will probably be on the forefront. Another opportunity I’ve read about is using cameras to potentially predict when you’re ready to take your first cuts or top cuts out, or projecting how big your pigs are.”

He says it is interesting and exciting to see where AI is going to go in the future, but it will still have some limitations.

“I don’t think it’s going to eliminate the need for the human being in the barn unless you can get a robot that can walk pens,” he says.

2. Predictive forecasting
Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, sees possibilities with AI in predictive forecasting.

“AI offers the ability to be able to say, ‘Here’s what I need to market pigs and here’s what I’m going to have from a projective standpoint,’” he says. “I’m going to have a health break coming up here in three days because the water just dropped by 50% based on predictive analytics.”

Eckberg says collecting, understanding and looking at the history of the data is something he thinks the industry can make progress at, especially considering how much progress has been made in the last 25 years.

“There’s a lot of variability with genetics, with barn types, and there’s the human factor as well, but AI is coming,” he says. “I think with the amount of data that’s coming in and how it’s being used today, it’s very exciting to be able to help pork producers get even better and more efficient.”

3. Management decisions
When it comes to the sow production side, AI should help people make decisions quicker, says Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS. He believes AI can help the industry be more proactive rather than reactive.

“We all have data systems and production records,” he says. “We’re looking at the 8, 12, 16, and 26-week trend lines. I think AI will help us predict those trend lines much quicker so we can make decisions that will influence production numbers quicker, one way or the other.”

4. Pig care
From a veterinarian’s perspective, Cara Haden, DVM with Pipestone, believes AI will be able to empower caregivers to focus even better on the pigs that need more care.

“I don’t think we’re that far from where we might have people walk into their barn for the day, pick up a printed list of the 12 or 100 animals they need to pay attention to today,” she says. “This pig has a fever. This pig is limping or has reduced movements according to the camera. This pig hasn’t been to a feeder.”

She points out data has shown there is reduced movement and reduced water intake before a porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) outbreak. AI tools can monitor for these things.

“I think we’re going to be able to diagnose disease quicker, identify things quicker, and we’re going to learn so much through AI about disease processes and movements,” she says. “I think it’s going to really help us improve our ability to take care of pigs.”

Read more: Artificial Intelligence in the Future of Swine Genetics

You can find more of the State of the PORK Industry report here.

4 Things We Learned In 2024 to Be Better Pig Farmers in 2025

Wed, 29 Jan 2025 23:13:52 GMT

In a competitive industry like the U.S. pork business, it’s important to reflect and learn from your experiences. The experts featured each quarter in the State of the Pork Industry Report share four ways they grew from experiences they went through in 2024.

1. We’re in the people business.
One thing that Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS, is taking with him from lessons learned in 2024 is how to relate to people in the barn.

“We all have protocol books. Every company has them. You can read the protocol, ask a few questions and go out in the barn. But one thing we tried last year was an ‘extreme farrowing makeover.’”

For three weeks, Annegers and the production team worked side by side with the entire farrowing team. It was very structured and organized, playing people’s strengths against each other, he explains.

“Not everybody is great at everything, but we figured out who’s our really good monitor, who’s our really good day one person, who does really good with sow care and on down the line,” he says. “At first, it was kind of organized chaos. The farm staff was nervous that all these people were in the farm with them. The manager was really uptight and nervous. But by the third day, we were really able to teach that team how to be efficient and prioritize things. That really put the icing on the cupcake.”

Prior to the extreme farrowing makeover, that farm weaned 11.9 pigs per litter and just last week, they weaned 13.2.

“How we need to teach and approach our teams is different than the old Gen X guys that we are,” Annegers adds. “This made me look in the mirror and ask myself, ‘What can I do differently to help that next generation of the industry?”

2. Don’t make it complicated.
“I’ve been thinking a lot about this question: what is the center of our industry?” says Pipestone veterinarian Cara Haden.

After reading through some National Pork Board data about pork consumption in the U.S., Haden admits she was a little discouraged. Boomers ate a lot of pork. Millennials eat much less. Generation Z eats half as much as millennials.

“In this recent downturn, we realized that no matter how low the pork prices go, that’s not necessarily going to drive pork purchasing from millennials and Gen Z,” Haden says. “As we move into 2025 as an industry and personally, I think we need to ask ourselves how we can help change the industry.”

Right now, the industry is very focused on production. Haden says it’s time to change that perspective to be more customer focused.

“What can we do to become relevant to millennials and Gen Z consumers? I got to sit in on a great presentation from Dr. Candace Croney from Purdue. One of the things she talked about is that the consumer wants to know the pig lived a good life. Don’t make it any more complicated than that. That’s going to be my focus this year – trying to centralize our industry around something other than production numbers. Let’s think about what the consumer wants and tell the story of pigs living a good life.”

3. Speed up and slow down.
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity, learned two contradictory messages in 2024: speed up and slow down.

“Speed up making decisions and communicating with key stakeholders within your company,” he says.

Last summer, they came across a health challenge in the barns. They manage pigs with different health statuses, so when problems arise, Kuker says it’s important to act quick.

“Switching that pellet to a meal to try to reduce the number of ulcers is important,” he explains. “We had that issue happen this summer, and we learned from that. We were quick on some and not as quick as we needed to be on some others.”

He learned the ‘slow down’ lesson when they transitioned a couple barns to a different producer.

“Our team was really happy with how healthy these pigs were from this producer,” Kuker says. “Even though there weren’t as many health issues (and shots) to deal with, there was still opportunity.”

Getting them to slow down and be more observant, looking for new things they haven’t looked for before, was key, he adds. In this case, Kuker taught them to slow down and keep an eye out for strep by looking for swollen joints.

“When you’ve got 165 pigs in a pen, you don’t have time to stop and look at every joint on every pig, but you need to look for different things than what you were looking for before,” he says. “If that pig isn’t moving away from you as you enter the pen and trying to escape, or if it’s not trying to move with the rest of the group and it’s lagging behind, that’s a pig you need to take a closer look at.”

4. The strong shall survive.
The past two years have been incredibly challenging for U.S. pork producers. Of all the lessons Brad Eckberg, account executive at MTech Systems, learned in 2024, this one stands out in his mind as he reflects on the challenges the industry has faced.

“If you’re sitting in a good position today, good job, especially coming out of 2024,” Eckberg says. “But we need to keep in mind there will be another downward cycle in the future. Unfortunately, it’s not if, but when will it happen? How will you withstand the next slide economically?”

He says producers need to keep adapting. Whether it’s pen gestation, antibiotic-free, Prop 12, just remember to consider all options to stay viable.

“We might not be a fan of some of these production practices, but there could be a financial benefit to it,” Eckberg says. “Maybe it’s time I build a mill or buy a feed mill, consolidate areas where I’m raising pigs or be more efficient from a medication usage standpoint. This industry has its ebbs and flows, and you need to prepare for it. Learn from your past experiences so that in the future you can avoid those bad mistakes and be better guided with those that were good.”

Watch or listen to their entire discussion ranging from PRRS and labor turnover to third-party Prop 12 audits and influenza on YouTube. These experts share their perspective on what’s been happening on farms in Q4 2024 and takeaways for producers to consider in 2025.

Catch up on past State of the Pork Industry Reports .

It’s Time to Focus on the Wins: Q3 State of the Pork Industry Report

Fri, 08 Nov 2024 21:20:22 GMT

In the third edition of the State of the Pork Industry Report, Farm Journal’s PORK editor Jennifer Shike joins Cara Haden, veterinarian with Pipestone; Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity; Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS; and Brad Eckberg, product subject matter expert with MetaFarms, to compare Q3 2024 sow and grow-finish data (obtained by MetaFarms from July 1 to Sept. 30) to what the experts are seeing in the barns.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion on YouTube. These experts share takeaways from Q3 and how understanding percentiles can help your farm be more profitable now and in the future.

“There is a lot of positivity in the pork industry right now that can be attributed to higher farrowing rates this year, as well as higher born alive and lower stillborn numbers,” Eckberg says. “We saw a decrease in sow mortality by 1.2% from the from the same time last year.”

This positive reduction in sow mortality is significant for the industry, that will likely see the first yearly decline in almost six years of collecting sow mortality data, Eckberg adds. He believes extra focus on animal husbandry and animal welfare has helped the industry make improvements.

Meanwhile, Haden points out the decrease in porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS) is contributing to the reduction in sow mortality, too. From 2011-2012, the PRRS incidence rate was 40%. In 2023-2024, the PRRS incidence rate was less than 20%.

“It is absolutely, hands-down, the best PRRS year we’ve had since we started tracking PRRS incidence,” she says.

As a sow farm manager, Annegers likes seeing the industry trend in the right direction but says there is still opportunity to improve.

“A big thing we’re working on is focusing on what we can control,” Annegers says. “We can identify those girls that need to be treated earlier and get medication into them. We can select the highest quality gilts with good leg structure. We can keep sows in the right condition all the time. If we focus on what we can control, we’ll be a lot better off.”

Kuker says it’s harder for him to correlate the lower sow mortality rates with what he is seeing on the finishing side, but he does know he has been seeing healthier pigs in the last six to nine months.

“I’m getting better startups on my pigs,” he says. “I’m dealing with less respiratory issues. Of the flows that I see, we’ve had less instances of PRRS breaks from the sow farms and less lateral breaks in our area than what we dealt with a year ago.”

That increase in overall health of the wean pig and decreased incidence of lateral disease has been a nice change, he adds.

On the grow-finish side, Eckberg says average daily gain continues to surprise him. In Q3, finishing hogs averaged a 1.94 lb. average daily gain. Feed conversion was also improved at 2.76 for finishing hogs.

Kuker says they’ve experienced less severe E coli. breaks, which he attributes to using more biosecurity measures and different feed ingredients and different levels of zinc.

Here are a few other key points the experts discussed:

1. Execution counts.
“In the pig industry there are many different companies and many different protocol books, but 90% of the protocols are the same. Those teams that can execute daily protocols and make the right decisions will share in that success,” Annegers says.

2. Invest in continuing caregiver education.
“Don’t underestimate how important caregivers are and how a different caregiver can drive different numbers. You can have a really healthy farm, and it can have very different performance depending on the caregivers and their ability to take care of the sows,” Haden says.

3. As the seasons change, don’t let up on biosecurity.
“We know once crops come out, we’re going to start hauling manure, pumping manure and there’s just going to be a lot of activity going – a lot of virus out there that wasn’t there before. Being prepared and being proactive is a huge part to keeping your farm healthy through those challenging months,” Annegers says.

4. Focus on transportation.
“Take your time and take smaller groups. Do more training and set expectations to make sure people are moving the pigs in a responsible way so they’re not over-stressing them and causing more damage than they should be,” Kuker says.

5. Caregiver presence in the pens before marketing makes a difference.
“Studies would consistently show that the more time a caregiver spends in the pens with the pigs prior to marketing, the lower stress those sorting and loading events are going to be on the pig. Prior to marketing is when we may start ignoring groups because they’re just about to be out of our hair. That’s really when we need to be boots-on-the-ground in the pens, getting them used to the presence of people,” Haden says.

There are always many things that producers can focus on, but Annegers reminds producers to stay positive.

“It’s easy for us to point out opportunity areas. But, sometimes we forget to focus on the wins,” Annegers adds. “Help our industry by spreading some enthusiasm and positivity on where we’re headed.”

Watch the full State of the Pork Industry Report on YouTube or listen on The PORK Podcast anywhere podcasts are found.

Your Next Read: What’s Wrong With Being Average? Q2 State of the Pork Industry Report

What's Wrong With Being Average? Q2 State of the Pork Industry Report is Out Now

Wed, 31 Jul 2024 20:43:04 GMT

In the second State of the Pork Industry Report , Farm Journal’s PORK editor Jennifer Shike joins Cara Haden, DVM and veterinarian with Pipestone; Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity; Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS; and Brad Eckberg, business analyst with MetaFarms, to compare Q2 2024 sow and grow-finish performance data (obtained April 1 to June 30) to what the experts are seeing in the barns.

Watch or listen to their entire discussion on YouTube. These experts share takeaways from Q2 and how understanding percentiles can help your farm be more profitable now and in the future.

“I don’t like to be average,” Eckberg points out. “I think a lot of producers don’t want to be average. The pork industry is a very competitive business. We’re always striving to improve. Looking at average doesn’t tell the whole story.”

For example, in the Q2 data, the average pigs weaned per mated female per year was 26.8. The Top 10% was 31.3 and the bottom 10% was 20.1.

“The top 10% really gives you the genetic potential of the animals that you’re working with,” Annegers says. “If you just compare yourself to the average all the time, and you’re in the bottom 10%, you’re really not that far away. It’s like, ‘we could be better, but we’re fairly close.’ But when you compare that bottom 10% to the top 10%, there’s such a wide range there. It’s like, ‘whoa, guys, we’ve got the same genetics, very similar facilities, what is that top 10% doing that the bottom 10% is not?’ Most of the time what we find out is the percent of execution. We have an amazing protocol book. Those farms that really execute that and are bought into that protocol, those farms are normally towards the top 10%.”

Here are a few other points the experts discussed:

Total born average was 15.6 pigs – up 2 pigs from 2015.
“Increased numbers are a good thing for sustainability, but it is a huge challenge. In general, the more pigs that we get, the more we struggle with weights. That means it’s going to be harder to lower pre-wean mortality. Also, there’s only a certain amount of colostrum in every sow. When that colostrum gets spread between 20 piglets instead of 16, that’s just different and we need to be able to manage that appropriately or we’re not going to have appropriate health in those pigs. I think increase total born is a great thing, but it does pose more challenges for our caregivers in caring for those pigs.” – Cara Haden, DVM, Pipestone

Finishing weights averaged 285.5 lb., an increase of 2.8 lb. from a year ago. Ten years ago, finishing weights averaged 279.8 lb.
“We’ve tried different tactics like turning off water cups to get better feed efficiency during certain times of the year. We don’t do it in the summertime when there’s high heat and we’re trying to drive water intake. But we’ve done some different things to drive average daily gain and to drive those numbers to be more efficient to put more pounds on those pigs. We’ve had some pretty good success stories doing that. With the better markets we’ve got this summer, our customers want to drive pounds to the packer and take advantage of those weights now. I foresee in the next couple months we’ll start backing off on that a little bit and move back towards normal ranges here in the next two to three months.” – Randy Kuker, The Equity

Q2 2024 finishing average daily gain averaged 2.02 lbs, a minimal increase from the same period last year but a 7.4% increase from 2015.
“When we talk about welfare and growth, you can have very similar facilities that perform very, very differently. The only difference is the caregiver. I think from an average daily gain standpoint, the best caregivers are going in and assessing the environment and making changes to make sure that the pigs are comfortable so they’re going to the feeders all the time, they are checking feed and water and making sure that feeder settings are appropriate so pigs can get the feed when they want to, and they are getting right on top of treatments in a timely manner. All of those things that are so dependent on caregivers can have huge impacts on things like average daily gain.” – Cara Haden, DVM, Pipestone

In addition, the panelists explore a variety of topics from rubber flooring to euthanized mortality and from scoring systems to reactive caregivers. Check out the second State of the Pork Industry Report hosted by Farm Journal’s PORK on YouTube.

Data and Discussions Will Drive the Pork Industry Forward

Fri, 14 Jun 2024 16:00:00 GMT

Look at the numbers. Have big discussions. Pull in multiple voices. At World Pork Expo last week, AgriTalk’s host, Chip Flory, sat down with Cara Haden, DVM and veterinarian with Pipestone; Randy Kuker, The Equity; Brad Eckberg, MetaFarms; and Farm Journal’s PORK Editor, Jennifer Shike, to talk about the importance of the State of the Pork Industry report and its implications to the industry.

“Randy brings so much to the table that’s different from my perspective,” Haden says. “Brad has a perspective that’s different from mine. The more we can throw these numbers out and have conversations around them, I think the more other people will start having conversations and we can continue to move forward as an industry.”

In light of economic conditions, we can’t be isolating ourselves, Eckberg adds.

“We need to be able to collaborate with other people to be able to say, ‘Hey, what are your issues? What are my issues,’” he says. “Especially from a veterinarian perspective, if you can have a vet-to-vet conversation, and ask, ‘Hey, where are these pigs going? What are the health issues?’”

He points out asking these questions and working together to keep disease out will help the industry from a production standpoint. Kuker agrees.

“I always say you can’t manage what you don’t measure,” he says. “Our company uses Brad’s platform that provides some good insights and provides different ways that we can analyze that data. From the top down, taking it to the people that work in the barns, and telling them these are the KPIs that you need to really be interested in—these key performance indicators. This is what’s going to give our producer the best chance for profitability, so he’s going to continue to be able to afford to put pigs in their barn.”

Having real-time data is important to producers to be able to address the goals and needs of their operations.

“Putting the right information in the right hands for the right role is something that we try to strive for every day,” Eckberg says.

That data includes animal health information, which is usually the No. 1, if not for sure the second topic that comes up at World Pork Expo, Flory observes. From a veterinarians perspective, a healthy animal and animal health from a producer’s perspective of efficiency have to be aligned for the industry to move forward.

“I think more and more people are starting to see the value of a healthy pig,” Haden says. “It is so fun to raise healthy pigs. I think everybody’s starting to realize that pig health is a huge make or break for the industry.”

Pig health translates to efficiency in the farrowing house in a big way. The industry is seeing big numbers of pigs saved per litter.

“I think the foundation of these farms that are having astronomical numbers, it’s absolutely pig health,” Haden adds. “You just cannot achieve some of these amazing numbers that Brad is showing if you don’t have a foundation of a healthy sow and healthy pigs.”

Kuker also reiterates the importance of pig health as he’s seen some unhealthy flows. He says it affects moral in the barn when producers can’t execute some of those health protocols.

“You better have a healthy pig when it comes in the door if it’s going to be a profitable pig when it leaves the finishing house,” Flory says.

“I think as a veterinarian, it’s really easy for me to say that but it’s good when production and numbers people chime in and say it’s all about the health,” Haden adds. “There’s been so much work done. If you get a healthy pig in the door, your production is going to be better. If you can keep that pig from getting sick, absolutely your production is going to be better We talked about one of the main things we saw on the report was these astronomical differences between the top 25% and the bottom 25% of producers. I think so much of that it’s health that makes those differences.”

As with animal health, profitability tops the discussion list for producers. While it’s not a great economic time, some producers get creative reducing feed costs, looking at different technology, looking at different feeder types, water types, ventilation types, having that visibility.

“Ultimately, when it comes down to a breakeven standpoint, it’s all about revenue and expenses,” Eckberg says. “So how can it make as much money and keep expenses low?”

Sow numbers, heavy carcass weights and even the recommended temperature to cook pork are also topics the pork industry continues to have. Along with those, demand is also an important component of this profitability in the industry.

“We need to talk about the demand side as much as we do anything else,” Flory says. “We’ve got to make customers happy. If we can make customers happy, we can take more of that consumer dollar, work it down the supply chain, and get it all the way back down to the producer that’s putting pigs in the in the trailer and taking them off to the farrowing house. Eat more pork.”

The demand discussion is one Kuker gets excited about.

“The good news is I’ve heard more about what you’re talking about from many people in the industry at different levels,” Kuker. “They’re talking about more in the last six to nine months than I’ve ever heard in my 20 some years. Keep talking about pork.”

Full episode

Check out the State of the Pork Industry Report here and watch for the next quarterly report.

State of the Pork Industry Report: Takeaways from 2023

Tue, 21 May 2024 13:44:50 GMT

Looking back at the takeaways from 2023, what are the non-negotiables for pork producers going into the second half of 2024? In the first State of the Pork Industry Report hosted by Farm Journal’s PORK editor Jennifer Shike, four experts discuss this question and more as they compare the data to what they are seeing in the barns.

Find out what this group of industry leaders believes are the most important takeaways and how this can help your farm be more profitable now and in the future.

Experts include:

Cara Haden , DVM and veterinarian with Pipestone
Randy Kuker, director of swine production for The Equity
Adam Annegers, sow production manager at JBS
Brad Eckberg, business analyst with MetaFarms

What are the 2024 Non-Negotiables for U.S. Pork Producers?

For Kuker, the non-negotiables for 2024 are simple – people development and biosecurity matter.

“Develop your people, train them, coach them, try to influence them to do a good job every day and give them the support they need. Be present for them,” Kuker said in the report. “Then, really push biosecurity. Consider incentivizing people for doing good biosecurity and keeping those lateral transfers out of there.”

Annegers couldn’t agree more and added the pork industry doesn’t have time not to train. People are the industry’s No. 1 resource.

“Keeping our people happy and getting them trained, engaged and empowered to do a great job taking care of pigs is huge for us. That will continue to be a big driver for us as we go forward,” Annegers said. “Those people trees are just not growing anymore. So, when we get talented people who care a lot, we need to put all of our time and effort into those people. Without employees on the farms, we don’t have farms.”

For the self-proclaimed “data nerd” on the panel, Eckberg encouraged producers to utilize data to make decisions. He also reminded listeners that garbage in is garbage out.

“You’ve got to have quality, accurate data to make decisions,” Eckberg said. “Tracking the bare essentials is a great place to start that allows you to be proactive.”

Of course, health is a non-negotiable for Haden.

“It is so fun to raise healthy pigs. It’s a blast. They’re a really fun animal to work with,” she said. “But it’s not fun to raise sick pigs. Really look at your system. What can we do from a vaccination standpoint? What can we do from a flow standpoint? What can we do from a biosecurity standpoint? What can we do to try to keep our pigs healthy, so that we can enjoy our jobs and going into the barn every single day? I think that needs to be a huge focus.”

In addition to 2023 takeaways, the panelists dig into a variety of topics from Prop 12 to E. coli and from mortality rates and grow-finish trends. Check out the first State of the Pork Industry Report hosted by Farm Journal’s PORK on YouTube .

Read More:

A Good Start to 2024: Mortality Improves Across the Board in Latest MetaFarms Report

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