9/20/23 Flashcards
How are Swine Farms Productive?
Fewer, Larger Farms produce more meat by focusing on one product
What are problems with swine confinement?
Waste Issues
Animal Welfare (housing)
NIMBY
Environmental management
Pigs in confinement
Pigs “lend themselves to confinement” because you can hold lots of pigs in a small area
How is animal waste (specifically swine waste) an asset?
Used as fertilizer.
Has NPK (nitrogen, phosphate, potassium)
Swine waste produces phosphorous.
Pig Teeth
Pigs are born with needle teeth –> blunted to preserve teats
Pig Diet
Pigs are omnivores, but… they prefer carnivarism
Describe a Swine Farm
Pit design –> waste falls through to flush basins and are flushed to the lagoon where solid waste falls to the bottom
CAFO
Confined Animal Feeding Operations
Life Cycle of a Pig
Birth (3-5 lbs)
21 days (10-12/15 lbs)
Move from farrowing crate to nursery w/ creep feeder (3-4 weeks, till 40-50 lbs)
Moved to “finisher” (under 6 months, till 280-300 lbs)
Sexual maturity (6 months)
Harvest OR farrow for 4 months
21 days of lactation
Swine Temperature Needs
Farrowing crate (98* for piglets, 68* for pig) use heating pads/lamps
How many litters does a sow have?
2.2 per year up to 6 years
SGI
Swine genetic international (#1 sow farm in US)
38 pigs per sow per year
When are piglets weaned?
3 weeks
SEW
Segregated Early Weaning (10 day pigs)
MEW
Medicated early weaning
Snatch Farrowing
Baby is removed at birth due to medical condition of sow
Vertical Integration
One company owns/controls almost all aspects of production
Poultry = #1
Swine = #2
How is Vertical Integration good?
Farmers can stay on farms
Build finishing barns
Paid on production
Iowa
Produces most corn and most red meat per square mile
Swine Production
Switch from “pasture based” to “total confinement”
How are hogs raised?
Either in continous flow or all-in-all-out systems
Phases of produciton
Farrow
Nursery
Finisher
Time of Conception to Processing
295 days
