The past couple of days I’ve been doing some comparisons on lighting options for swine facilities. As part of the comparisons I’ve had to examine our current lighting expenses in our research barns. All of the swine industry is currently … Continue reading
I’ve been tracking USDA SEW and feeder pig pricing reports since 1999. Beginning in 2003 I’ve also been tracking both the source and destination of the pigs cited in the report (http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/nw_ls255.txt). This morning I did some quick graphing and … Continue reading
The demand for good quality weaned pigs and feeder pigs is heating up several weeks earlier this year than compared to historic records. In the past 10 years (2003-2012), weaned pig prices as reported by USDA (http://www.ams.usda.gov/mnreports/NW_LS255.txt) bottomed during week … Continue reading
Summer heat arrived this weekend in the upper Midwest. Relatively high dew point temperatures (67F dew point at 8:30 am as I write this) mean pigs are having trouble dissipating heat. I continue to walk wean-finish and grow-finish sites that … Continue reading
The National Retail Federation just released its ranking of the top 100 retailers in the US for 2013. Not surprising – Wal-Mart was the largest by a wide margin. In 2012 Wal-Mart had US sales totaling $328.7 billion dollars. Worldwide … Continue reading
The Canadian swine industry continues to shrink in size. We won’t know the exact numbers of pigs until the results of the July 1 inventory count is released by Statistics Canada in late July. However, we are seeing the impact … Continue reading
Dr Tom Gillespie, a swine veterinarian from Rensselaer, Indiana replied to my blog on Crop Progress and Hog Barns from earlier this summer. He asked that I comment on the possible differences in performance between wean-finish barns and nursery moved … Continue reading
By now most readers of this blog, at least in the US, have read about the spread of PED virus in the Midwest swine industry. On Wednesday at a meeting of veterinarians and producers at World Pork Expo it was … Continue reading
This week is the 25th World Pork Expo in Des Moines. I look forward to visiting with many of you at this event. If the rains hold off I expect many of you with plans to attend will change those … Continue reading
This past week I participated in the Alltech Symposia in Lexington, KY. One of the speakers was Dr Tony Edwards, a consulting swine nutritionist from Adelaide, Australia. Tony’s task was to take us through the dynamics that are associated with … Continue reading