Animal health and how the products farmers use them is becoming more and more important in raising hogs because the costs of those products keep rising and the right for consumers to know what farmers are using is increasing.
Dr. Henry Gauvreau, a Doctor of Veterinary Medicine with Warman Veterinary Services says antibiotic benchmarking offers farms the opportunity to add another layer of benchmarking to their on-farm management systems.
Dr. Gauvreau explains benchmarking allows the farm to establish where its use of antibiotics is at so it can compare that use over time and make improvements. Antibiotic benchmarking is establishing a baseline of antibiotic use on farms.
“Over the last two years there’s been an antibiotic benchmarking process done with the Prairie Swine centre and we’ve established their baseline use of antibiotics at that site,” he said.
“Certainly the antibiotic benchmarking process won’t be a new aspect of farm management for our farms. The hog industry for years has used production benchmarking, financial benchmarking and used those tools to manage their farms and improve their farms. With the expansion into antibiotic benchmarking, it’ll just be another aspect of improved management for the farms.”
Dr. Gauvreau says the prudent use of antibiotics is an issue for all livestock producers and certainly for swine producers. Over the last few years there’s been more emphasis placed on the use of antibiotics in general and the appropriate use of antibiotics.
“The advantages for benchmarking are to establish a baseline of use for the various farms. Every farm is different as far as the use of antibiotics,” he said. “The process of benchmarking allows the farm to establish where its use of antibiotic is at in a standardized format so it can compare over time to its improvements. By having a process to establish a benchmark, then they begin to understand where their use of various antibiotics is. At this point antibiotic benchmarking is a new concept.”
Dr. Gauvreau says relatively few farms have participated in the evaluation of their antibiotic usage. There has been a few studies in Alberta and in Ontario where the benchmarking process was used but essentially it’s a new process.
He says the hog industry has used production and financial benchmarking for years and the expansion into antibiotic benchmarking will be another aspect of improved management. •
— By Harry Siemens
