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Improving a piggery business
To be competitive, you need to monitor the performance of your pork production business closely and use the results to build on areas of strength and improve areas that need attention.
It's important to consider how to make your business more efficient—increased efficiency will help keep costs down, streamline production processes and ultimately increase the opportunity for making a profit.
Pork production systems can be improved in many ways. The key document to prepare is a pork production business plan. The plan should measure and forecast performance, including feed use, labour, health costs, and capital you’ll require for buildings and/or land.
This guide will help piggery owners and managers improve production planning and performance, and access industry support.
Developing a pork production plan
A pork production plan can help you:
- make the best use of piggery pens, buildings, paddocks and shelters
- set targets for the number of pigs sold, pigs weaned, litters born and sows mated per week
- avoid under or overstocking
- compare marketing opportunities and determine optimum marketing weight for your business.
Step 1: Calculate how many pigs you can accommodate
The number of pigs you can put in each pen also depends on your pen design, the health status of your herd, temperature and ventilation control, and the need to minimise re-mixing of pigs. However, stocking densities must meet the pig welfare code.
- Work out the space available in the weaner pens through to the finisher pens.
- Draw a floor plan of the grower sheds with the measurements for all the pens.
- Calculate the living space in each pen and the total space available, excluding space taken up by feeders.
- Determine the target number of pigs that can be put through the grower spaces each week to keep the sheds fully occupied, with the pigs sold at the most profitable weight. You will need to meet the space requirements stated in the Model code of practice for the welfare of animals: pigs (pig welfare code) or higher allowances, if demanded by the pig buyer.
The same principles apply to free-range systems regarding the number and size of available paddocks.
In addition, for both indoor and outdoor piggeries, you must meet the conditions of the environmental authority to operate.
Step 2: Set breeding herd targets
Once you've worked out how many pigs you can house or run in paddocks, you can then work out your breeding herd's targets.
You should:
- determine a target number of litters per week—based on the target number of weaners and the average litter-size weaned
- determine a mating target—based on the target number of litters per week and the average farrowing rate of the herd
- ensure your mating program is planned well in advance so you have the right balance of sows, gilts and boars, allowing for the use of purchased semen. This is the ultimate goal of a production plan.
Step 3: Balance the breeding and grower herd production
Make sure you have enough space for pigs born from your breeding herd. You may need to adjust the plan if your breeding and growing facilities are not balanced. The production plan will identify any bottlenecks in the system and you can use it to consider alternative options.
Review and update your plan regularly, particularly in the early stages. Actual production must be checked against the targets set for the business.
Keeping costs down in your piggery
Review your production and feed systems regularly to maximise efficiency in your piggery.
Follow your production plan and reassess it based on actual performance. Avoid empty or understocked sheds, pig pens and paddocks, as these increase your costs.
Feed pigs correctly
Feed accounts for up to 65% of costs in a piggery, which makes it the main expense in producing pig meat. You need to know how much and what feed your pigs should eat each day in order to grow to their optimum selling weight. This is vital when looking at your return on investment.
Read more about pig nutrition and diet and how much to feed pigs.
Reduce pig feed wastage
To save money, learn how to find and minimise feed wastage problems in your piggery.
There are 2 main types of feed wastage in pork production: physical wastage and metabolic wastage.
Physical wastage
Some pig feed wastage cannot be avoided, such as feed lost when pigs are fed on the floor or when they spill feed from feeders. However, you can control and reduce the amount of feed wastage. In your operation, check:
- feeders and feed lines are not worn, faulty or incorrectly adjusted
- feed is not spilled during delivery
- feed is placed in correct bins
- feed is not spoilt due to moisture and condensation in silos or in feeders due to moisture, urine or faecal contamination
- unnecessary feeding is not occurring (e.g. non-pregnant sows, culled sows, overweight sale pigs, rodents)
- pigs are kept at the correct temperature (e.g. cold pigs eat to keep warm, hot pigs use energy to lose heat).
When mixing feed on the property, check:
- ingredients or feed are stored correctly
- milling loss are minimised (e.g. moisture, trash)
- particle size of feed is not too coarse.
Metabolic wastage
Metabolic wastage happens when you don't use the best-matched feed for pigs or you feed them in a way that doesn't match their metabolism.
Stocking pig pens correctly
Empty or understocked sheds, pig pens or paddocks are wasted space, and increase costs so you won't get the maximum return on your facilities. Similarly, overstocking sheds, pig pens or paddocks will harm your production cycle. Your pigs may not have the right amount of space to grow correctly and may get ill. Overstocking contravenes the pig welfare code, the APIQ standards and the environmental authority.
Setting performance standards for your piggery
Performance standards are used to prepare financial budgets and set targets to improve areas of pig production. You need to set specific performance standards for your piggery and plan your production.
Piggery performance standards
The success of your piggery is dependent on:
- genetics of the herd
- the herd's environment
- what you feed the herd
- the herd's health
- housing and good piggery management
- meeting market specifications.
The size and type of your piggery determines what performance standards are important to you. Use these tables as a guide on industry standards and to identify where you can improve your piggery.
Pig herd average performance
Breeding herd
Performance standard | Fair | Good | Very good |
---|---|---|---|
Number of pigs born alive per litter | 9.0 | 10.5 | 11.0 |
Number of pigs stillborn per litter | 0.8 | 0.6 | 0.5 |
Pre-weaning mortality % | 13 | 11 | 8 |
Farrowing rate % | 82 | 87 | 89 |
Litters per sow each year (farrowing index) | 2.1 | 2.2 | 2.3 |
Weight for age
Performance standard | Fair | Good | Very good |
---|---|---|---|
Birth (kg) | 1.2 | 1.4 | 1.45 |
28 days (kg) | 6.7 | 7.7 | 8 |
Grower herd
Performance standard | Fair | Good | Very good |
---|---|---|---|
Mortality % (wean to bacon) | 7 | 5 | 3 |
Feed conversion ratio (FCR) – liveweight | 2.7 | 2.5 | 2.3 |
Average daily liveweight gain from birth to bacon (g/day) | 580 | 660 | 750 |
Whole herd
Performance standard | Fair | Good | Very good |
---|---|---|---|
Pigs sold per sow each year | 19 | 22 | 24 |
FCR – dressed weight | 4 | 3.85 | 3.7 |
Weight-for-age guide
Type of pig | Age range (weeks) | Liveweight (kg) | Dressed weight (kg HSCW) |
---|---|---|---|
Porker | 14–20 | 45–80 | 35–60 |
Baconer | 18–25 | 80–120 | 60–105 |
- Pre-weaning mortality % = ((number born alive - number weaned) x 100) ÷ number born alive.
- Farrowing rate: the percentage of sows that farrow to a given number of matings.
- Litters per sow a year = ((total litters farrowed in a time period ÷ average number of sows over the same time period) x 12) ÷ number of months.
- When calculating 'average number of sows', every sow in the herd should be included, including any gilts mated and gilts running with a boar, taking the average total over the period.
- FCR: kilograms of feed required to produce 1kg of pig meat. Expressed in terms of dressed weight or liveweight and measured over a given period of time. May be expressed for growers only (or a section of the grower herd) or over the whole herd of breeders and growers. Feed efficiency of the grower pig (normally calculated on a liveweight increase) decreases as age increases. The whole herd FCR (normally calculated on dressed weight sold) improves as the weight of slaughter pigs increases because the breeder herd feed is spread over the higher total weight of pork produced.
- Dressed weight (hot standard carcass weight (HSCW) as defined by AUS-MEAT) = liveweight x killing-out percentage.
- Dressing percentage (killing-out percentage) = (carcass weight ÷ liveweight) x 100. Normally, the heavier the pig, the higher the killing-out percentage, which is usually within the range of 72–80%.
All standards are expressed as herd averages.
Also consider...
- Learn about benchmarking your business.
How to forecast profits and expenses in your piggery
Keep control of your costs and forecast your return on investment to monitor the potential success of your piggery.
Profit indicators in a piggery
In the pork industry, the 2 main indicators of net returns to help you forecast financial outcomes are:
1. The margin over feed cost
Feed represents about 65% of overall costs in pig farming, so for small businesses the margin between revenue and feed cost is a fair measure of performance. This is called the margin over feed cost (MOFC).
The MOFC is obtained by deducting the cost of feed to produce 1kg of hot standard carcase weight (HSCW) pork from the average pig price. A higher MOFC indicates a higher profit margin. This figure can vary greatly due to fluctuating feed prices, so take care when forecasting.
2. Cost of production or operating costs
For larger businesses, you can use financial packages and spreadsheets to keep track of and update the cost of production on a daily basis. Cost of production includes all the costs of producing 1kg of dressed carcass. Some businesses and benchmarking groups record all the costs of producing 1kg of dressed carcass weight except for interest on capital and depreciation.
You can calculate the profit or operating margin by deducting the cost of production or the operating cost from the average price you received (per kg dressed carcass weight) for all pigs leaving the property.
The pig profit cycle
Pork production operates in a volatile economic climate with feed costs influenced by grain supply, and pork price responding to supply and demand. The pig-meat price to feed-price ratio illustrates the volatility of pork production.
The price of pig meat, in cents/kg of HSCW, is divided by the price of feed, in cents/kg, to find the ratio. A higher ratio than the long-term average generally indicates a profitable industry.
To increase your pig margin, you can:
- improve sow reproductive performance
- increase the number of piglets born alive per litter
- decrease non-productive days in the breeder herd
- time pig mating correctly
- manage pig ovulation and fertilisation rate
- decrease embryonic and foetal mortality
- monitor the health status of your herd
- reduce sudden stresses (e.g. high air temperature, mixing with other pigs)
- minimise feed wastage
- minimise human-animal interaction.
Also consider…
Find out how to manage the environmental impact of piggeries.
Measuring the performance of your piggery
Herd management programs
'Measure to manage' is the key to successful pork production irrespective of the size of your enterprise. On small units, use cards, notebooks, diaries and spreadsheets to record actions including:
- dates of matings
- farrowings
- weanings
- deaths
- sales
- feed purchases
- treatments.
For herds committed to APIQ, the APIQ small holder manual allows you to keep all records required by the APIQ auditor and for managing the herd in a single, well-designed document.
For larger herds, several computer programs are capable of handling the large volumes of records required for managing the breeder, weaner and grower herd.
Analyse your production and financial results to assist you to:
- make sound decisions
- forecast production
- use benchmarking
- motivate staff.
Compare with industry averages
While analysing your performance data can lead to better production practices and increased profitability, also consider your herd's performance relative to industry averages. For example, if your herd's number of pre-weaning deaths is higher than the industry average, then you need to address this.
Also consider…
- Learn about benchmarking your business.
Support organisations for running your piggery
The following organisations offer support to pork businesses:
- Australian Pork Limited (APL)—producer-owned organisation supporting and promoting the Australian pork industry.
- PigPass—a national tracking system which provides real-time information on the movements of all pigs in Australia.
- Queensland Farmers' Federation—federation representing all farmers in Queensland.
Also consider…
- Find out about techniques to manage the environmental impact of piggeries.
© The State of Queensland 1995–2024
- Last reviewed: 08 Sep 2021
- Last updated: 08 Sep 2021