US Gilt Management: A Summary
By USDA NAHMS - Proper management of the young breeding female herd is essential to the health and efficiency of any swine operation. For example, different management strategies may be used to prevent disease entry into herds and to maximize reproductive...

Sorting Pigs: Why We Do It, and Why We Shouldn’t
By Harrold Gonyou, Priarie Swine Research. This article (13 page pdf) addresses the question of sorting pigs by weight or sex as they are placed into social groups at weaning, when entering the grow/finish phase, or as gestating sows.

Administration of Iron and Antibiotics on US Hog Farms: A Summary
By USDA NAHMS - The USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) collected data on swine health and management practices from a random sample of swine production sites in 17 states 1 as part of the Swine 2000 study. These sites represented...

US Farm Bill: A User's Guide to the Environmental Quality Incentives Program
By Roy Frederick, Department of Agricultural Economics, University of Nebraska-Lincoln. - For many livestock producers, the Environmental Quality Incentives Program (EQIP) could be the single most important part of the Farm Security and Rural Investment...

Defining Risk From Meatborne Parasites
By USDA, ARS - A single-celled parasite called Toxoplasma gondii likely infects more than 60 million people in the United States, according to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. While most of the infected don't have any symptoms, the...

Why A More Stringent Policy on Antibiotic Use in Agriculture is Needed - Scientific Alliance
WASHINGTON - Antibiotic use in agriculture contributes to increasing antibiotic resistance in bacteria carried by humans, says a panel of scientific experts tasked with evaluating the transfer of antibiotic-resistant bacteria from farm animals and the...

Too Many Hogs in a Pen Depresses Growth
By Dr Morgan Morrow, NCSU Swine Extension - In the 1990s we saw an explosion in the number of finishing floors in North Carolina. Most of those floors were built and budgeted to provide about 7.5 square feet of finishing space per pig. Over time, and...

Animal Welfare: Here for the Long Haul
By Marlys Miller, Pork Magazine - In keeping with our review of trends, developments and challenges facing U.S. pork production, we must revisit the animal welfare issue.

US Swine Herd Summary: Disease Problems and Antimicrobial uasge
By USDA NAHMS - In 2000, the USDA’s National Animal Health Monitoring System (NAHMS) conducted a study of swine operations within the top 17 pork-producing states. These operations represented 94 percent of the United States swine herd on operations with...

Management of Weaned Pigs 1: Increasing group size
by Niamh E. O'Connell, Violet E. Beattie and R. Norman Weatherup - Increasing the group size of weaned pigs has potential benefits for producers in terms of more efficient use of resources and greater ease of management. There are concerns however...

Changing Production Requirements
By Bernard Peet BSc, Pork Industry Consultant, Lacombe, AB - In the past the pork industry has responded to economic and market pressures by reducing the cost of pork in real terms and providing a wide range of quality products. Over the next decade...

Cost of Production Guidelines
By thePigSite.com - We get asked many times 'How do I calculate my Cost of Production?'. This is a simple question that does not necessarily have a simple answer. There is no global standard procedure for calculating cost of production, however,...

16 Tips to Prevent Drug Residue in Pork (Production)
By Pork Magazine Staff - No one wants to be responsible for a drug residue in a pork carcass, but there are many ways it can occur -- contaminated feeds, water, environment and equipment, not to mention misuse and many others.

AFO's, CAFO's, NPDES and TMDL's - What you need to know!
USDA ERS - Take an AFO, concentrate it to make a CAFO, mix in some NPDES and TMDL, and you have a brew that more livestock and poultry producers may have to imbibe in the near future ad US livestock operations face greater restriction.

Looking Differently at the Same Situation
By Dr. Tim Safranski State Swine Breeding Specialist - Heterosis or hybrid vigor is the tendency for crossbred animals to perform better than the average of their parents. It results because there is heterozygosity at more loci which represent multiple...

Weighing a Pig Without a Scale
By thePigSite.com - Ever wondered how to weigh a pig without a scale? This article explains how you can obtain a good estimate of a pigs weight by measuring its girth and length and doing some simple math.

Launching Gilts for Longevity
By Bill Raufer, Pork Magazine - Special attention to the replacement gilt offers immediate and long-term benefits, says R. Dean Boyd, technology director for the Hanor Company, which has 100,000 sows in several states.

Managing the eating quality of pork - What the producer can do
By D.N. D'Souza and B.P. Mullan, Agriculture Western Australia - Meeting the consumer's need for lean, tender, juicy pork that is free from off-flavours and aromas is imperative to the future success of the Australian pork industry in an ever changing,...

Achieving realistic production targets
By Jim Carlton, Pork Magazine - Good people are the primary key to achieving realistic production goals in today’s pork production systems. In today’s pork production systems the end product may be pork, but business success is related more to people...

Eliminating Disease - Why, When and How: A Financial Evaluation
By Luc Dufresne, Boehringer Ingelheim Vetmedica, USA. - The last decades have seen great improvement in swine production. Better genetics, nutrition, flow management, and building design have helped improve production efficiency and profitability. Unfortunately,...

PRRS Eradication by Herd Closure
By Montserrat Torremorell and William T. Christianson, PIC, USA. - PRRS eradication strategies have recently received attention from the US swine industry. PRRS virus infection can be costly and difficult to control and is a major limitation, often preventing...

Protecting Farm Worker Health and Safety: Risks and Hazards Associated with Hog Production
By Shelley Kirychuk, The Centre for Agricultural Medicine, Saskatoon. - As with most industries, there are risks and hazards associated with working in the hog production industry.

Salmonella Control in Feeder Barns
By Paul Schneider, Elite Swine Inc., MB. - Salmonella infections in humans and livestock are not a new phenomenon. However recently much more attention has been directed to this disease for two reasons.