Just prior to the Pork Congress, on March 7, the US border should open to the movement of live beef cattle to slaughter. The effect of the opening should see an upward change in beef prices in Canada and perhaps increase the price of hogs here as well. Although hog prices should be firm in 2005, a higher price in May through July would help to regain some of the losses experienced in 2002/2003.

What with the US countervail on live hogs shipped across our border, we certainly look forward to the expansion at OLYMEL to double-shift capability. If kill capacity can be increased to about 15,000 head/day from the current 9,000, then demand for live hogs from the western Provinces should be huge at Red Deer. Although we don’t see a big increase in sows numbers in western Canada anymore, there is a good likelihood that feeder pigs can be finished here – using up feed grains and providing added need for transportation and labor for both production and slaughter.

Canadian Swine Breeders Association (CSBA-Info) reports that there are about 1.8 hogs raised in Canada for every pig on farm, compared to 1.5 hogs per pig on farms fifteen years ago. Genetic and management improvements have combined to result in more hogs produced from each breeding sow, and faster growth rates mean hogs take fewer days to market.

Hogs marketed to OLYMEL by Bloomsbury Farms at the end of August showed excellent grading results. The 53 head averaged 93.7 kg and 112.3 index from carcasses with 16.5 mm backfat and 62.5 mm loin depths. Average lean incentive paid $1.42/hog.

Yorkshire and Landrace pigs probed at F&S Hog Farm in December showed the excellent performance in the table below:

We realize that everyone has purchase choices, so we’re very proud that you chose PEAK!

Six Pathfinder boars probed at Five Lakes Farms nucleus had EBV indexes of 154, 149, 130, 126, 123, and 122. The 23 Duroc boars averaged 9.8 mm backfat, 62.3 mm loin depth and had a 63.6% Estimated Lean Yield.

23 Trailblazer^® boars at Five Lakes Farms nucleus measured an average of 62.6 mm loin depth, with 10.4 mm backfat leanness.

The objective of the grow-finish unit is to maximize profit! Annual profitability of the unit is a product of throughput (capacity utilization) and efficiency of production (growth rate, feed conversion efficiency, mortality, carcass weight and grade). Growth rate, entry weight and exit weight will determine throughput. Target market weights will be dictated by the grading grid at the packing plant. The optimum market weight for an individual pig is the weight at which there is no more profit to be made by retaining that pig. The factors influencing the economic value and profitability of each pig are:

1. Pricing matrix
2. Feed costs
3. Feed conversion efficiency
4. Carcass quality

Therefore, marketing strategies can change with time and market opportunities. Because pig producers have different genotypes and different feed costs each unit must identify the economic value and profitability of their pigs at different market weights and also determine the feed and other production costs of maintaining that pig over time. Feed conversion efficiency (the amount of feed required to put on a kg of gain, increases as the pig gets heavier, especially as it approaches market weights of 115 to 120 kg. This is because more feed is used for maintenance and the pig starts to deposit more fat per unit gain.

Grading Losses

Although grading grids have been adjusted in recent years to provide wider acceptable carcass weights, there is still considerable economic loss from marketing ‘underweight’ and ‘overweight’ pigs. The costs associated with marketing at incorrect weights (non-conformance loss) can be very large and are different for pigs sold above and below optimal market weight. An example of such loss is shown in Table 1.

Table 1. Effects of Market Weight on Profitability

With this grid, the optimum carcass weights were 85 to 95 kg. The losses per pig from selling below optimum market weight were larger than those suffered from selling above optimum weight. Therefore, if marketing errors cannot be avoided, then it is best to market pigs at heavier weights rather than lighter.

Optimum Weights

It is not uncommon for 40 % or more of marketed pigs to be sold outside their optimum market window (25% too light, 15% too heavy). It is obvious that currently used systems of selecting pigs for market are not working well. A reasonable target for weight ranges at time of sale might be:

The most practical way to ensure that the majority of pigs are sold at their optimum weight is to weigh a randomly selected number of pigs. The golden standard is to weight all the pigs on a weekly basis as they approach market weight. But weighing pigs is not anybody’s idea of a good time and the pigs don’t like it either. Weighing pigs takes time and considerable effort. The cost of selecting and weighing pigs can range from $0.18 to $0.74 per pig. This large variation in weighing cost is due to labor costs and efficiency of the facilities available. So how many pigs do we need to weigh and when should we weigh them? In the next article in this series we will deal with strategies to improve revenues from marketing pigs by weighing a selected number of pigs.

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