Building and Keeping Your Dream Team
By Banff Pork - This report contains 2 articles taken from the Banff Pork Seminar 2004 Proceedings concerning building an effective employee team.

Managing Large Group Grow-Finish Pigs
By Banff Pork - This report contains 3 articles taken from the Banff Pork Seminar 2004 Proceedings concerning the health and productivity of grow-finish pigs in large group housing.

Raising Pigs at Home
This article was originally prepared by Gail McWilliam, former UNH Extension Educator, with revisions by Dr. D.M. Kinsman, Professor Emeritus, UCONN Dept. of Animal Science and Dr. K.B. Kephart, Associate Professor of Animal Science, Penn State University....

Save Energy in the Farrowing Room With Piglet Hovers / Kennels
By Larry D. Jacobson and Lee J. Johnston, University of Minnesota Extension Service - Piglet Hovers (or kennels) are simple, solid partition enclosures located in the farrowing crate or pen to which piglets have free access. A few commercial companies...

Loin eye size and what factors drive it?
By Daniel Hurnik, Industry Chair for Swine Research, published by Atlantic Swine Research Partnership - Now that some producers in Atlantic Canada are being paid for a larger loin eye, producers are asking what factors can increase the size of the loin...

Sorting Pigs by Weight for all-In/All-Out or Continuous Flow Facilities
By Harold Gonyou and Colin Peterson and published by Prairie Swine Center - Two trials were conducted to determine if pigs should be sorted by weight at the beginning of the growing/finishing phase and if this decision is dependent upon the use of all...

Is There an Optimum Weight for Gilts After Farrowing ?
By Emma Clowes, Government of Alberta, Agriculture, Food and Rural Development and published by Bacon Bits - Heavier gilts, is there a benefit...? Sows usually mobilize tissue and lose some weight in lactation. But if too much weight is lost, performance...

Driving Cost Out of the Production System
By Gary D. Dial, DVM, PhD, MBA, Janelle R. Roker, DVM, and Steven A. McWilliams, MS, Greenleaf Agribusiness Group and published by Prairie Swine Center - As recent history of the U.S. swine industry has evidenced, survival in today’s uncertain economic...

Top 10 cost cutters and revenue generators – Part II
By Lee Whittington, John Patience, Ruurd Zijlstra, Ken Engele, and Shala Christianson and published by Prairie Swine Center. This is Part 2 in the series examining how pork producers can effectively manage costs within their operations. Lowering your...

Production Control System for pigs
By Frank Hollwell and David Lee, Swine Nutrition Specialists, North Carolina State University - This report looks at pig production control systems, including the use of Visual Image Analysis, which allows the outline of the body to be traced and qua...

Reducing Electricity Costs: Understanding Cable Losses.
By Nick Bird for FarmEx - A factor that is usually little considered in the cost of electricity is "cable loss". All electrical cables have electrical resistance, albeit it small. This means that a small amount of power is lost between one end of the...

Top 10 cost cutters and revenue generators – Part I
By Lee Whittington, John Patience, Ruurd Zijlstra, Ken Engele, and Shala Christianson and published by Prairie Swine Center. Lowering your cost of production and increasing revenues is more than just good business; for many producers this is the key...

Bacterial contamination of recirculating brine used in the commercial production of moisture-enhanced pork
By Greer GG, Nattress F, Dilts B, Baker L., Agriculture and Agri-Food Canada, Lacombe Research Centre - In a commercial process for the production of moisture-enhanced pork, boneless pork loins were conveyed through a recirculating injection apparatus,...

Nursery Management and Performance
By J.F. Patience, A.D. Beaulieu, C. Levesque and C. Bench for Prairie Swine Centre - Nursery management and nutrition is attracting increasing attention on the part of many producers for a number of reasons. The first relates to expenditures undertaken...

Lost days - the key to breeding herd efficiency
By Bernard Peet, Pig Production Training and thePigSite Consultant - Lost days, empty days or non-productive days (NPDs) are one of the most important influences on breeding herd efficiency. They represent the number of days in the breeding cycle or...

Dealing with Variability in the Growout Barn
By J.F. Patience, H.W. Gonyou and R.T. Zijlstra - Variation is becoming an increasingly important topic of discussion in the pork industry. Differences in growth impact the time that is required to empty a pen, or a room, or a barn and still meet the...

Quantitative Selection for Piglet Survival as A Safe Way to Reduce the Cost of Weaners
By Egbert Frank Knol - In this paper, first presented at the 2003 Banff Pork Seminar, trait piglet survival is explored using quantitative methods, searching for genetic variation (Knol, 2001) and for biological explanations for possible genetic differences...

An industry guide to the production of heavier pigs
By the UK's Meat and Livestock Commission - There is interest in the British pig industry, especially from producers, to increase carcase weights to reduce production costs. This article identifies some key issues surrounding such a move.

Water Quality and Weanling Pig Performance
By John Patience, Nadine Possberg and Doug Gillis, Prairie Swine Centre - Few well-controlled studies have investigated the impact of poor quality water on pig performance; most suggest the pig is capable of handling relatively high concentrations of...

Gestation Housing for Sows: Studies on Electronic Sow Feeders & Stalls
By Harold W. Gonyou, Ontario Pork Newsletter - The housing for gestating sows is one of the most controversial aspects of pig production (AAFC, 1993), and forms the basis for most criticism of the animals' welfare. The primary issue is the restriction...

Prediction of Pork Prices & Production
By Ron Plain, published by Alberta Pork in their Banff Pork Seminar 2003. Change is a reality in today's hog industry and in this article, the first in a series from the 2003 Banff Pork Seminars, Ron Plain asks - How can Canadian pork producers shape...

Boom, Bust & Beating the Hog Cycle
By Ray Snitynsky, published by Alberta Pork in their Spring 2003 Western Hog Journal. The growth of the hog industry over the past five years has been a boom in Manitoba. It has grown significantly and currently is responsible for over 17,000 jobs. This...

Solving rural conflicts
By Clare Illingworth, Ontario Pork Newsletter - Better communication between people living in the country and nearby farm operations is the key to resolving conflicts about rural issues, says University of Guelph researcher Wayne Caldwell.