With several factors causing hiccups in getting pigs to market Dr. John Carr, a world livestock consultant, veterinarian, and lecturer, living in Brisbane, Australia suggested slowing down the pigs’ growth by going to the market the same way, only older.
All the textbooks about getting the growth rates of pigs up are about feed conversion [FCR] and growth rates. Get them out the door, because if there’s no door to get them out of, or the door’s going to be open next week, not this week, make them a little heavier, but there’s only so much heavier a producer can make them.
“Or I can make them ready for next week and not this week, which means I got to slow them down. And you work out how many grams a day you need to slow them down by.”
When a pig gets to be 90 kilos and growing a kilo a day, they seem to thrive on air, fantastic. Pigs make incredible athletes.
Dr. Carr said to feed them gestation diets effectively rather than the finishing diet. There are regions and provinces where COVID fallout has shut down processing plants and slaughterhouses, causing chain reactions. There is no truck driver, no slaughterhouse guy and no one to take it out of the slaughterhouse. It is not so much truck drivers and their butchers for the British. The slaughterhouse can take the meat, take the pigs, but they can’t do anything with them. So they can’t cut them up into chops because there are not enough butchers to do the work.
Team playing is fantastic in the sense that the whole planet involves teamwork. Everyone all the time tries and makes a team of people. In pig production, in a sense, the team starts on the farm making the farmer the foundation stone for this entire team right to the person sweeping the floors in the supermarket. It’s annoying sometimes because of fighting within the team, whether at the farm, the slaughterhouse or the supermarket.
“We fight among ourselves.”
When is the pig worth anything? Probably only worth something when the child is eating the pork chop and getting nutrients and fun out of eating a pork chop. Every bit before that is just getting that pork chop in front of that child to be healthier tomorrow. The child has a splendid future because she had a fantastic Canadian pork chop today.
Before the African Swine Fever outbreak back in 2017, China had half the pigs in the world.
“Maybe not quite as true today, but she eats half the pork and that means to have half the pigs. When this COVID settles down – I’m sure that Chinese meat consumption has reduced or more controlled. In China, my friends are starting to put farms back together.”
However, an enormous problem in China where COVID makes people forget that the disease has not gone away.
“Two of my farms in China, I think it’s over the top. Every single day we check the pigs for ASF. Now we’re free, but the boss won’t relax. And I keep saying, well check every once a month. But no, no, she wants to check every single day.”
It’s true; testing doesn’t stop the pigs from getting African Swine Fever, but put in the fence. Unfortunately, this owner has invested in the fence.
Getting several extra weanlings from a sow doesn’t guarantee more money in the bank but understanding the concept of production in the sense of the fixed cost. Understandably, more pigs or fewer people look good on paper.
“I got to be able to convert those pigs to food. And it is a concern of mine that some of these extra weaners that we have are not viable in making money. They look good on paper, but they don’t necessarily make you any more money.”
In his years of consulting with pig farms worldwide, Dr. Carr has argued all along to plan the farm and then farm the plan. Look after the cost of production because the farm can’t control the income.
“But what I can try to do is get my cost of production right, and then God willing, I’ll still be in pigs.”
Hog producers have a duty of care to the planet feeding people. Half the world wakes up every morning and wants pork and the other half will eat it the next day.
“But we are the number one source of protein on this planet. And make it personal. We’ve got to get Canadian kids healthy, bright, and happy.” •
— By Harry Siemens