During lactation the sow prioritizes her litter and will mobilize nutrients from her own body to adequately provide nutrients to her litter if she doesn't receive the proper amount of nutrients in her diet. That is why it is critical for nutritionists to formulate a diet to minimize weight loss in the sow while maximizing weight gain in the litter. In this episode, I talk with Dr. Julia Holen about her work at KSU where she studied the effects of feeding elevated levels of essential fatty acids ...
One key skill for businesses to remain profitable for a long time is being able to adapt to the constantly changing world around you to meet the needs of your customers and your employees. Hord Family Farms has been successful for many years, and in this episode, Phil Hord shares with us his experience joining the family farm as the 5th generation and what he has learned from the experience.
What you will learn:
1. Younger minds entering family farms
2. Keys to keeping a hog operati...
Morning - your weekly 9-minute swine nutrition research update is here:
When it comes to identifying alternative feed ingredients there are many factors to consider beyond the base price. What is its nutritional value? How will it impact inclusion levels of other ingredients? Could it cause logistical complications? In this episode, I talk with Dr. Charmaine Espinosa about her study on the digestibility and nutritional value of high oil corn and the possibility to using it as an alternative to ...
As we have said before, swine farms need to continue to advance technologically if we want to be more profitable in the future. The main obstacle with this is finding ways with the current labor issues to implement these technological advancements. In this episode, Laura talks with Aidan Connolly about those obstacles, what the future holds for swine farms, and what we need to change to make that dream a reality.
What you will learn:
1. What technology today could transform livestock pr...
Carcass characteristics are the determining factor for the ultimate price you receive for your market pigs, so it only makes sense that they get necessary attention when genetically selecting your pigs. In this episode, I talk with Zack Peppmeier about his recent work at NCSU where he is working to develop a method for measuring backfat and loin depth with ultrasound technology. Could this be beneficial for genetic selection? Listen and find out!
Meet the guest: Zack Peppmeier is a Ph.D. s...
The breeding barn is arguably the most complex stage of production in the swine industry. There are a lot of factors that influence the productivity of the sow and those first few weeks of life for the piglets will impact how efficiently they grow for the rest of their lives. In today’s episode, Dr. Laura Greiner and Jennifer Patterson discuss some of the key components of determining sow lifetime productivity and what recent research has shown for the interactions between sows and low birth wei...
PRRSV and PEDV continue to be a major problem for swine producers as they pose a major risk to both the pigs’ welfare and the economical status of the farm. One potential risk of infection is through feed trucks that have recently delivered feed to another farm that is positive for PRRSV or PEDV. In This episode I talk with Dr. Grace Elijah about her study testing different decontamination methods of truck cabs to determine which method works best and which surface harbors the most bacteria. The...