The Swine it Podcast Show

“What are those things we're going to look back on 20 years from now that we're doing today? I think a lot of those for our industry will revolve around gilt development and gilt selection, that we just did not pay enough attention to such a crucial part of our business. And that's another area where I see a ton of opportunity not just in terms of application on the farm, but at a deep...

“You don’t teach people how to dance by handing them an SOP. That’s not how it works. You have to be a part of that process to be really good at a skill.” – Dr. Sarah Probst Miller What you will learn How do adults learn? Key aspects of creating competencies on pig farms; One thing veterinarians and farm managers can do right now, to improve the way they teach; The future of learning and teaching...

“It's a commodity business, and because of that you cannot differentiate your product. So, when you produce a pig, the market says it's the same as a pig that somebody else produces. And in a commodity business, the way you increase your profits is to control costs. And that's why the pig production industry is so cost-driven.” – Dr. James Pettigrew What you will learn His thoughts on...

“I appreciate the vision of the pork producers. There are some truly visionary folks. Having that sort of big picture vision for the industry and taking off the blinders of what's happening for me today, what's my business going to look like five or ten years from now… One of the things I appreciate about the industry is just some really great thinkers in that space. ” – Dr. Chris Hostetle...

“[When designing experiments to pick up mortality differences…] keeping up-to-date with what's the best way to make sure that we're analyzing the data in a way that it's repeatable to make the best decisions we can.” – Dr. Jordan Gebhardt What you will learn Challenges     and common mistakes associated with mortality experiments; Recommendations     for design efficiency. Meet the gue...

“I very much encourage people to go out into production, and get that experience… it is a high-stress job. That is OK. You learn a lot. Get involved with your packer. Be the leader. Own that entire feed operation from a personal standpoint. The team does not have to report to you. You are a servant to all those people.” – Dr. Jeff Hansen What you will learn Where do you start? Nutrient matrix; Ene...

"When managing tunnel ventilation, we need to make sure we have wind. If there's no wind, we're effectively not providing any cooling, and the big driver of that is our fans. With that comes making sure our fans are performing optimally: belts are tight, functioning, clean, cones, and shutters are on. A lot of times, shutters can get dirty over winter, and if they don't get cleaned...

“Having [a fully-integrated model], these days, allows you to marry your supply to your demand and your disposal models, and it gives you some kind of protection in the business. So that's an important first step.” – Dr. Robert van Barneveld What you will learn 1. Latest research from Australia; 2. Major research breakthroughs from the last decades; 3. How many diets do really need? 4. Biggest...

“Clear communication between practitioners and diagnosticians is key to get the most out of a health case” – Dr. Fabio Vanucci I got to grab the brain of this experienced swine diagnostician, Dr. Fabio Vanucci… join us on this conversation by clicking any of the buttons below. Also, if I may ask you a favor - share it with the first veterinarian that comes to your mind. What you will learn: - How...

“If you get a job as a nutritionist in a feed company, your first job probably will be to update the feed ingredient database.” – Dr. Hans Stein What you will learn: - The biggest mistake in swine nutrition; - Why is this a huge mistake; - Thoughts about in-line NIR; - Other common mistakes; - First few diets after weaning: requirements vs. reality; - One thing to change today on how graduate stud...

“The majority of boars, if you start varying their collection schedule, it's a stress to the boar and you'll have certain boars that will start to have bad semen quality. Keep it in mind: once a week. If you have older boars, what is common is a 3-in-2 schedule (collected 3 times in 2 weeks).” – Dr. Darwin Reicks Boars represented 50% of the final product of pig production and unfortunatel...

It is time for our Swine it Podcast Roundtable… If you missed the first episode, this is a series of episodes envisioned by the Swine it Podcast and Provimi, where we will have roundtable discussions with experts of the global swine industry tackling subjects that can influence the producer’s bottom line. On this episode, I chatted with Dr. Dean Boyd, Dr. Brent Frederick and Mark Hulsebus, about “...

“The reality is… if we get too much calcium in these finishing pig diets, especially, if we get over a 2:1 total Ca to total Phosphorus - even 1.5:1 we could argue - we know we’re decreasing growth.” – Dr. Joel DeRouchey What you will learn: - Thoughts on phytase; - Calcium release from phytase; - Superdosing phytase: nursery vs. grow-finishing; - Do we give amino acids and energy release values?...

“There are a number of different strategies available to benefit these slow growing pigs that we identify early on. It should be a combined strategy rather than one particular intervention. You should be focusing on these pigs at several different points during their early life, in order to get the best of catching up.” – Dr. Sadie Douglas What you will learn: - The top 3 lessons from all her rese...

“[To survive major economic challenges], in my mind, producers should have about $100 per pig marketed annually of working capital capacity. If things get really bad, and I lose $50 per pig for 2 years, we will be OK." – Dr. Brad Freking What you will learn: - Thoughts on WHO’s asymptomatic, presymptomatic COVID-19 cases; - How fast are the packing plants recovering and product mix change? - W...

“Since [this research] is done in your barns under commercial conditions, your management (good or bad), your intakes (good or bad), your growth (good or bad)… You don't have to make that application or interpretation. Some of the frustration that my peers have that in terms of having a wean-to-finish [commercial research] barn is that their health status or their intake is so different that t...

“The science that shows viruses can live in the feed has being replicated so many times, over some many different viruses. I think that’s 100% science, there’s no question about that. But there are quite a few things we don’t understand yet, so there’s quite a bit of art.” – Dr. Scott Dee What you will learn: - A brief history behind feed biosecurity; - The biggest learnings from recent times; - M...

“Ammonia levels, stocking density, number of pigs per caregiver, type of floor, and timeliness of feed supply are the 5 biggest factors affecting tail-biting” – Dr. Flaviana Gottardo and Dr. Annalisa Scollo What you will learn: - What is the impact of each of the different factors? - Experiences from a practical standpoint; - Practical recommendations for producers; - What is still needed from a r...

Managing pig growth during special conditions, with Dr. John Patience. Dr. Patience is a global leader in swine nutrition research and internationally recognized speaker, received the College of Agriculture and Life Sciences Outstanding Achievement in Research Award. Received his bachelor's degree in 1974 and his master's degree in 1976 from the University of Guelph, Ontario. He received h...

“I think for a while the gilt development was a forgotten piece of the sow system and I think it is our greatest potential for improvements in sow reproduction and lifetime performance. We need to start paying more attention there.” – Dr. Kara Stewart Today’s episode will cover “ Back to the basics in gilt development ”. What you will learn: - Boar exposure in gilt development - Optimal weight, ag...

“The size of the virus isn't as important [to make a vaccine], it’s how complex it is. Coronavirus and Circovirus are not very complex. African Swine Fever and Pseudorabies are complex.” – Christopher Chase Our guest is Dr. Christopher Chase . Dr. Chase is Professor from the Department of Veterinary and Biomedical Sciences, South Dakota State University (SDSU), he is a native of Sisseton, SD,...

“You know what those maximum performances are for average daily gain, and we have very good models for that. If I go to 90% or 87% percent or whatever that number is, how slow can I bring those pigs, and what’s the impact on feed efficiency?” – Dr. Chad Hastad Our guest is Dr. Chad Hastad , with Bachelor’s degree in Animal Sciences (South Dakota State University) and a Masters and Ph. D. in Swine...

“These algorithms are oftentimes much better than humans at finding patterns from massive amounts of data. One algorithm predicts mortality events a week in advance and it warns users that they're going to have a problem a week ahead of these mortality events happening.” – Chris Bomgaars Our guest is Chris Bomgaars. Chris grew up in Orange City, Iowa, and in 2008, he saw an opportunity to join...

Pig production, nutrition, COVID-19, and research, with Phil Hord from Hord Livestock.

“A lot of the contributing factors to mortality for both an infectious and non-infectious standpoint occur early on in that pigs’ life. Piglet birth weight, colostrum management, weaning age… those factors do have long-term impacts on the animal. It's the combination of this intertwined, extremely complicated, matrix that ultimately results in the observed mortality.” – Dr. Jordan Gebhardt. To...