FEED FOR THOUGHT ▶▶▶


Ripping down silo walls L


ast month at the International Swine Nutrition Conference, a question from the audience sparked a great discussion. The question centred around why pigs start off so rough today in the nursery. This has been a debate and problem for the last five to ten years that our industry has


struggled with. The reality is that we now have a pig that doesn’t perform in the first two weeks but makes up for it in the end. It was even mentioned that you can find genetics that perform exceptionally well in the first two weeks but end up costing you in the finisher period. But I may just have to disagree with only blaming genetics for this poor starting pig problem. What are some possible correlations? Labour shortage is constantly coming up in discussions in the USA. Or is it that we have removed most animal proteins from our diets? Or is it because we are chasing that lower feed cost and crude protein costs with synthetic amino acids? I am going to take a step backwards, because I do not think the problem is in the nursery barn or can be solved with nursery nutrition strategies. The prob- lem is in the sow and our key performance indexes (KPIs) for our sow farm, nu- tritionists and systems. Is it causation or correlation that our sow mortality and uterine prolapses are through the roof as well? Through genetics and manage- ment, we pushed for more pigs per sow per year out the farrowing door but not the market truck. One of our largest integrators even told me that the old saying of every 1 lb (0.45 kg) of weight at weaning equates to 2 lb (0.9 kg) at the end of the nursery and up to 4 lb (1.8 kg) at slaughter is just not true today in their system. Where do we need to start? I think the solution is to rip down the silo walls in our organisations and have the geneticist, veterinarian, nutritionist, production manager and accountant all work together on the entire system instead of just in their silos. Have we become too specialised in our skills that we do not have the internal capabilities anymore to thrive as swine producers? My nutritional suggestions are to stop formulating on a least-cost basis but instead on a best-cost basis. We need to be like the ruminant industry and start evaluating colostrum quality and ensuring every pig consumes at least 250 g of colostrum at birth or more if we aren’t getting the right things into colostrum. We need to stop saying we can’t top-dress in gestation or run a second feed line because we can’t justify the cost on the sow farm. We need to get our sow body condition in check; this constant roller coaster ride we put our sows on is not helping. Our main goal in sow nutrition should be to keep her tank full, have her reserves met, and optimise her offspring’s passive, innate and adaptive immunity before they leave her. Of course, I could go on and on about potential nutritional interven- tions, but the biggest thing is that we need to start working as a team and setting our own KPIs that drive system-wide profitability, rather than just our department’s production bonuses.


Casey Bradley For Casey Bradley, growing up on a mixed swine and crop farm in Southwest Michigan eventually led to a successful career in swine nutrition. She currently spends her days as president of the Sun- swine Group.


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▶ PIG PROGRESS | Volume 37, No. 8, 2021


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