Production

SwineCast 0393 Show Notes:

• Customer Panel: Principles, Practices and Proof - The Path To Success - conversations from the pork industry forum.

     Just as the landscape is changing on a global economic front as outlined in my previous blog, so then are the characteristics of competitiveness as we look out into the next five year horizon.  Many years ago, responding to the advent of scale in animal production, veterinary science in production agriculture moved from a focus on individual animal treatment to something widely referred to as herd health.  The change signaled a move from diagnosing and treating individual animals to defining the conditions within which the herd would be best served and proscribed culling for individuals that did not conform or adapt to the generalized conditions.  Defining the conditions best for the herd meant creating SOPs for bio-security, ventilation, average temperature at each day of age, average nutrition and a set of standard vaccinations as examples.  Not every individual animal prefers the average or thrives in the average conditions and the response in general was to allo

SwineCast 0392 Show Notes:

• Panel discussion and Q&A on the "We Care" initiative.  How you're involved and the impact the industry is working for.

SwineCast 0391 Show Notes:

• Pork Quality Assurance Plus... Dr Todd See sets up the training module at the National Pork Industry Conference then joins a panel to outline the audit program which has producers curious.  

     The U.S. swine industry is about to be reshuffled in some extraordinary ways.  For the first time we are witnessing political ideas at work in the world and in this country which are gaining the upperhand in their attempt to slow down the natural execution of comparative advantage based on efficiency and market economics.  Since 1995 the US industry has enjoyed a steady and sometimes dizzying increase in total demand as net exports rose year after year.  This is a testament to the global effciency of the industry and its ability to deliver a consistent, safe and high quality product.  At the same time, the desire to slow down the expansion of the industry in the US has been building because of a long list of issues which have been slowing gaining political strength. 

SwineCast 0387 Show Notes:

• Conversations today with Sam Baidoo looking at DDGs impact on ration cost and total feed availability
• Adam Fahrenholz, Graduate Research and Teaching Assistant Department of Grain Science Kansas State University with his International Poultry Scientific Forum presentation about the effects of DDGs inclusion on pellet quality

SwineCast 0384 Show Notes:

• From Pigski, a conversation with Dr Jose Piva, PICs Product Performance Director for the Americas on his presentation of South American pork powers Brazil, Chile and Argentina.  What opportunities and challenges the future may hold, and yes, Russia will continue to be an importer for the forseeable future

SwineCast 0383 Show Notes:

• Dermotte Hayes of Iowa State presents his thoughts on returning to profitability at the Banff Pork Conference
• FeedLogic's Drew Ryder looks at the market and tools to maximize feed efficiency

     The total demand for US Pork can be conveniently broken down into two components: domestic demand plus net exports.  Net exports is the excess of exports over imports of pork for the US.  We seem to know that US production of pork will be falling in 2009.  I say seem to know since this is based on projections by USDA (Hogs and Pigs Report).  What we do not know is if the projections are correct (what is their error variance) and what will happen to productivity increases to offset this decline in farrowing intentions from last fall.  We can surmise that the sows leaving the industry are the poorest performing ones (least productive) and that productivity gains from the remaining farms is likely to rise.

SwineCast 0379 Show Notes:

• Special presentation on the pros and cons of various mortality disposal options from Dr Tom Glanville of Iowa State.  Full presentation with slides is here.