I had an opportunity to meet with Mr. Alan Tank, President of AgCert International. The first payments against an option to purchase carbon credits has been made to several of the AgCert contractors. The future sale of carbon credits looks good for those farms that have now signed up and completed the data sheets for validation of the facilities.

Congratulations to Sam D. Wipf of Pleasant Valley Colony on winning the prize draw at the Montana Pork Producers meeting January 14. Thanks to the visitors at our display booth! It was a pleasure speaking with all of you.

Milford Colony marketed a load of hogs to OLYMEL in mid-December with the following results from its Summit gilts:

These hogs generally are sold to the USA, and are fed to meet that skinning plant’s market requirements.

We truly appreciate every one of our customers.

Table 1. Proportion of feed intake for maintenance

To minimize maintenance requirements for feed, it is best to encourage rapid growth, lower the disease challenge and house the pigs in a warm, comfortable environment to reduce body heat loss. Therefore, maximizing feed intake to encourage rapid growth is generally the most efficient and profitable way to raise grow-finish pigs, especially with modern, lean-type genotypes.

Feed intake

To maximize the feed intake of grow-finish pigs, it is not as simple as filling a feeder with feed and allowing the pigs to eat as much as they want. There are many factors that affect feed intake. These must be understood and managed if feed intake of grow-finish pigs is to be maximized. A list of factors affecting feed intake is shown below: 

An understanding of these factors can help producers to more clearly achieve the genetic potential in average daily feed intake of your pigs.

In the next series of articles, we will deal with some of the more important of these factors.

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