Progressive Pork
Understanding Your Role in Pork Quality
Keeping pigs healthy and growing is a clear priority on hog farms; less clear is how on-farm actions impact pork quality. Everyone on a hog farm is working toward the same end goal — to produce high quality, nutritious pork. While much pride goes into raising healthy...
How to Keep Productive Females in the Herd Longer
Gilt selection and management are often overlooked as critical drivers of sow lifetime productivity. When thinking about farm productivity there are many factors across each production stage that influence the outcome. Sows in the farrowing room get a lot of attention...
Environmental Considerations for Pre- and Post-weaned Pigs
Pigs face continuous adjustments in their first 8 weeks, but meeting thermal needs is a good start for long-term success. Birth, weaning, transport and placement are all stressful events that can impact the piglets’ survival, vigor and performance. Getting piglets...
Prop 12: Gestation-sow Housing Considerations and Implications
The California law has been delayed from its Jan. 1, 2022, start date, but gestation-sow housing will be forever changed. Hog farmers have a long history of making production and management changes, whether it involves revising diets, adopting new technology or...
Wet/Dry Feeders Offer Grow-Finish Production Gains
South Dakota State University trial reveals growth and feed efficiencies, with some carcass impact The most basic elements to keep grow-finish pigs productive and healthy are feed and water. Providing enough feeder space and waterers to meet the pigs' needs as well as...
Learn the Sights, Sounds, Smells of a Normal Wean-to-finish Barn
Key in on these three senses during your daily walk throughs to ensure the pigs’ needs are being met. Standard operating procedures may differ between production sites, but within those details are universal elements required to meet the pigs’ needs to keep them...
Connecting the Post-weaning Mortality Dots for the Future
Research continues to develop long-term strategies to maximize pig survivability, quality and well-being. It’s no exaggeration to say that 2020 may well be the U.S. pork industry’s most challenging year ever. The unprecedented and unpredictable challenge that COVID-19...
Time to Prioritize Your People Assets
As pork production faces a long-term labor shortage, employee retention is critical. Every day on every hog farm, pigs are the priority. The objective is to meet the pigs’ needs, and it’s up to the people on the farm to not just do the job but to do it well. For the...
Nursery or Wean-to-Finish: Finding What’s Best for Pigs and People
Health, mortality rates and more robust pigs have some producers re-evaluating weaned-pig systems. Pork production practices are an individual preference; what works for one person or farm may not work for another. It’s also true that pork producers are always looking...
Remodeling: Is it right for you?
Structural soundness dictates a hog barn’s remodeling potential, but there is much to consider. Perhaps you have a hog barn in need of upgrades, or you’re thinking about changing its function or are looking to purchase a building and want to evaluate its...