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...
For swine producers to optimize profits during the summer months, nutritionists need to be updating diets several months earlier as far as employing different nutritional and marketing strategies. In this episode, Dr. Matt Ritter, Matt Wolfe, and Dr. Qingyun Li discuss recent shifts in feed costs and market value for pigs this summer and how that may impact the strategies that producers employ on the farm.
What you'll learn:
- As an industry, what trends are we seeing this coming summ ...
Disease challenges are a very common problem farms have with nursery pigs due to the still developing immune system of the pigs at this age. There are many different methods to help increase herd health and maintain growth rates during infection. In this episode Dr. Dan Columbus and I discuss two of his recent studies where they fed increased levels of functional amino acids to nursery pigs to try and mitigate the negative effects of a salmonella infection.
Meet the guest: Meet the guest...
Bacterial infections in pigs are common on farms no matter how good your biosecurity protocols are. With the continuous use of antibiotics and vaccines in pigs we are beginning to see more antimicrobial resistance in common types of bacteria. In today’s talk, Dr. Matheus Costa chats with Dr. Laura Greiner about the increase in antimicrobial resistance we are seeing in the industry, and methods we are researching to try and deal with this issue.
What you will learn:
1. Antimicrobial res...