Pork Industry Handbook

The Pork Industry Handbook contains sections on a variety of issues, including breeding and genetics and swine projects. The two-volume, 1,600-plus-page guide comes in both print and DVD versions.

There is no other resource like the Pork Industry Handbook on the market, said Brian Richert, Purdue Extension swine nutrition and management specialist and handbook contributor.

"It covers everything in swine production, from reproduction to artificial insemination to business management and managing personnel," Dr Richert said. "There are many sections in the handbook that are new and updated. It's really the best reference book out there on how to manage a swine operation from start to finish."

Dr Richert prepared the handbook's expanded nutrition section.

"It will contain more than 30 new fact sheets related to nutrition and feed additives, especially from the standpoint of how to handle and manage your pigs when you're feeding ractopamine and what is the correct nutrition for those pigs," he said. "Another feed additive that's recently been approved is conjugated linoleic acid. That is utilized to enhance fat quality at the end of the finishing phase in pigs."

The nutrition section also provides requirement estimates on feeding pigs based on lean accretion rates and information on milk production of sows and litter size, among other topics.

"Everything is based on productivity in the nutrition section," Dr Richert said.

Other sections in the handbook include production and management systems, swine health, animal welfare and behavior, facilities and equipment, environmental management, worker health and safety, marketing, pork quality, and pork safety. The guide also contains a section with industry statistics and historical information.

Within the DVD version users will find more than 30 videos and about 20 interactive swine management worksheets that can be customized for a user's operation.

The Pork Industry Handbook was produced by swine experts at Purdue and 18 other land-grant universities, nine state pork boards, and the National Pork Board, in cooperation with the US Pork Center of Excellence and pork checkoff program. Nearly 500 editors and reviewers were involved in the project.

The print version sells for $125, the DVD version for $60 and both versions for $175. The two products and a copy of the US Pork Center of Excellence's Diet Formulation and Evaluation software are available for $250. Prices do not include shipping or sales taxes where applicable.