Those invisible wastes on pig farms should not be ignored
The invisible wastes on pig farms
There are far too many waste phenomena on pig farms, such as lights left on during the day, feed spilled on the ground, water left running, and so on. These are all visible wastes. Today I want to talk about some invisible but very serious wastes.
I. Feed waste
1. The waste of feed formulas that do not change with the seasons
Throughout the four seasons, temperatures differ, and pigs' nutritional needs also differ. But at present, whether it is a formula recommended by a feed mill or one designed by an expert, it is impossible for it to be suitable for all four seasons. Using a high-protein formula in winter causes protein waste, while using a high-energy formula in summer causes energy waste, and so on. If we can adjust the formula at the right time so that the feed-to-meat ratio for the whole herd drops from 3.5 to 3.4, then for a farm of 10,000 pigs, 10000 x 90 x 0.1 = 90000 kg of feed can be saved in one year, equivalent to more than 120,000 yuan.
2. The waste of using high-moisture corn without changing the formula
In autumn and winter, pig farmers often report that the quality of premix or concentrate is poor and that pigs eat but do not grow. Based on my own understanding, the cause of slow pig growth is not the quality of the premix or concentrate, but the excessive moisture content of the corn at that time. Because in autumn and winter, temperatures are lower, and pigs' energy requirements are greater than in spring and summer. At this time, the corn is mostly newly harvested corn with a moisture content often above 20%, so the mixed feed has insufficient energy. If the formula is not modified and a fixed feeding program is followed, energy deficiency will definitely occur, affecting normal pig growth. The solution to this problem is very simple. First, with other ingredients unchanged, increase the proportion of corn and at the same time increase the feeding amount. Second, while using wet corn, supplement with high-energy feed such as oils and fats, which is suitable for suckling pig feed or piglet feed that requires a high energy concentration.
3. The waste of processing feed not according to the formula
There are several situations. First, ingredients are not weighed when processing feed. Second, when one ingredient is lacking, another ingredient is readily used as a substitute. Third, inferior ingredients are passed off as good ones, such as using wet corn instead of dry corn. All three situations undermine the rationality of the feed formula and affect feed utilization.
4. The waste of uneven mixing
Uneven mixing has occurred on many pig farms. Manual feed mixing goes without saying, but even machine mixing often results in uneven mixing. In some cases, material is discharged while grinding; in others, mixing time is insufficient. The easiest thing to overlook is adding drugs or trace additives to feed by pouring them directly into the mixer without premixing. When several dozen grams of medicine are added to over a thousand jin of feed, it is very difficult to mix evenly.
5. The waste of large pigs eating piglet feed
It is often seen that piglets eat suckling pig feed, growing pigs eat piglet feed, and large pigs eat growing pig feed, all of which cause feed waste. Even more serious is letting replacement gilts eat finishing pig feed, which greatly delays the estrus time of sows and affects normal mating. These may seem unimportant, but if you calculate carefully, you will be greatly surprised.
II. Medicine waste
1. The waste of passing off inferior goods as good ones
The medicine market is very chaotic now. The same product from different manufacturers can differ greatly in price, sometimes even by several times. I once saw oxytetracycline raw powder in the same pharmacy priced from forty yuan to eighty yuan. Using medicines at different price levels produces different effects. The waste mentioned here means that using inferior medicines wastes treatment time and our confidence in a certain medicine. If this happens, we may abandon a very good drug because of using an inferior one once. If a boss pursues low prices one-sidedly when purchasing medicines, over time the veterinarian will have no medicine available.
2. The waste of uneven mixing when adding medicine
This is a problem that still troubles me to this day. Adding medicine to feed and adding medicine to drinking water are already popular methods, but there is no mixing method that all pig farms can accept. I once summarized a stepwise dilution method and also proposed a pyramid mixing method, but in practice very few people use them because they find them troublesome. Now when adding medicine, some mix it in the feed cart, some mix it on the ground, and some mix it after adding water, but none of these can mix the feed evenly. Watching medicine waste continue while being powerless to do anything, I hope to see a suitable method online or in a magazine.
3. The waste of improper use methods
This situation appears in the following cases: (1) Adding medicine to feed for pigs that have already refused to eat. (2) Using drinking water administration for drugs that are insoluble in water. (3) Using preventive doses for pig herds that are already diseased. In the above three cases, treatment is ineffective or very poor, and medicine waste is unavoidable. Therefore, when using medicine for a large group, the condition of the pig herd should be considered and medicine should be used according to the symptoms.
4. The waste of using medicine indiscriminately when there is no disease
There are so many pig diseases and their harm is so great that people in the pig industry turn pale at the mention of disease. Some advocate long-term high-dose medication for control, and quite a few farms have achieved good results with this method, which has been accepted by people. But I have a different view on this approach, not only because large amounts of medication increase costs, but more importantly because after long-term high-dose medication, once the medication is stopped, disease outbreaks may be triggered. This also leads to the abnormal phenomenon that suckling piglets are easy to raise but nursery pigs are difficult to raise, and when nursery pigs are raised well, problems appear in the growing-finishing stage.
5. The waste of using attenuated bacterial vaccines together with antibiotics
Vaccination prevention and medication prevention are both effective measures for controlling bacterial infectious diseases, but using the two at the same time does not produce good results. Because attenuated bacterial vaccines are still live bacteria, if antibiotics are used at the same time, these vaccines will be killed by the antibiotics and will not achieve the purpose of stimulating the pig body to produce immunity. This not only causes waste of vaccines, but also misleads our thinking, because pigs that have already been vaccinated still contract the disease.
III. Waste of pigs
1. The waste of raising ineffective boars and sows
A normal pig farm's sows produce 2.2 litters per year, with more than 10 live piglets per litter, and each boar should guarantee mating for 20-30 sows. If a pig farm has not reached the above indicators, it is very likely that quite a few ineffective sows are being raised. Ineffective boars and sows mainly include the following: (1) Sows that have not been in estrus for a long time. (2) Sows that repeatedly return to estrus after mating. (3) Sows with habitual abortion. (4) Sows housed in the gestation barn but that do not return to estrus. (5) Sows with few piglets born or poor lactation performance. (6) Boars with limb and hoof disease that cannot be used. (7) Boars used at very low frequency. (8) Boars with poor semen quality and low conception rates after mating, and so on. Raising these boars and sows wastes manpower, feed, pens, and so on, and they should be culled in time.
2. The waste of too long a time before finishing pigs are marketed
This is a phenomenon that appears on some pig farms with restricted feeding. To ensure the pigs' lean body shape, feed intake is strictly restricted. Pigs that could have been marketed in 160 days are instead raised to 180 days, and some even to 200 days. I think this is a serious waste, because for each additional day of raising, the pig's maintenance feeding also increases by one day. If maintenance feeding requires 1 kg of feed per day, then raising them for an extra twenty days requires an extra 20 kg of feed, equivalent to more than thirty yuan in cost. For a large-scale pig farm, this amount is very large.
3. The waste caused by inadequate technical skills
This phenomenon is very common, such as casually adding feed to piglets without observing their appetite, causing leftovers or insufficiency; mechanically feeding pregnant sows without checking their body condition, causing them to become too fat or too thin; and mating without considering the timing, causing low conception rates and few piglets born, and so on. All of these are caused by a lack of technical skills and can only be solved by strengthening technical capacity.
4. The waste of raising worthless pigs
Worthless pigs are mainly some diseased, weak, and stunted pigs. The five types of pigs not worth treating proposed by Teacher Wu Zengjian all belong to worthless pigs, such as pigs that cannot be cured, pigs whose economic value after cure is not great, pigs whose treatment is labor-intensive and time-consuming, pigs that are highly contagious and harmful, and pigs whose treatment costs are too high. These pigs are better culled in time; otherwise they waste manpower, medicine, and energy, and ultimately produce very little return.
IV. Other wastes
1. Waste of people - overqualification for small use and underqualification for great use
The waste of people on pig farms is also very serious. Overqualification for small use wastes an individual's abilities and skills, while underqualification for great use wastes precious time and the pig farm's profits. A few years ago, there was constant discussion about the unreasonable phenomenon of outsiders managing insiders in the pig industry. Now this problem has not truly improved, because although the people currently engaged in management have diplomas in animal husbandry, they lack management ability. This is a concrete manifestation of underqualification for great use, because without management ability, they waste the ability of other employees to perform.
2. Waste of money - good steel should be used on the blade
Many pig farms have an obvious problem: once pig farming becomes profitable, a large amount of capital is spent on expansion. The farm scale expands, but the farm's returns do not improve greatly or even decrease. So I think that rather than spending limited funds on expanding scale, it is better to use them to improve technical content or upgrade pig housing facilities, thereby increasing output per unit. Dr. Sun said, if raising six hundred sows and raising eight hundred sows yield the same profit, should we raise six hundred or eight hundred?
3. The waste of poor planning
Poor planning is common on pig farms. Poor capital planning leads to feed shortages and medicine shortages. Poor mating planning and overly concentrated mating lead to suckling piglets being forced to be weaned early, nursery piglets being transferred to growing barns at insufficient body weight, and finishing pigs having to be marketed early, reducing pig profits. Poor feed planning leads to stockpiling or shortages, frequent changes in feed formulas, and effects on use results, and so on. The losses caused by the above situations are something every pig raiser can experience, and we can also call it waste.
4. The waste of information resources
There are many sources of information, such as newspapers, the internet, telephone, and text messages. If fully utilized, greater returns can be obtained. Of course, information resources must be timely, reliable, and more importantly scientific. I once encountered a pig farm owner who subjectively inferred that live pigs would rise in price, so he stockpiled a large number of live pigs, but what came was a drop in pig prices. The loss on five hundred finishing pigs reached more than twenty thousand yuan. If reliable information could have been obtained in time, these losses could have been avoided.
The above only lists part of the waste phenomena. I hope it can play a role in attracting better ideas, so that more waste phenomena can be exposed and the attention of colleagues in the pig industry can be drawn.
--------------------------------------
Thank you very much to the original poster for sharing!
--------------------------------------
The various wastes during feed storage and feeding should not be ignored either.
--------------------------------------
Some wastes can be controlled by the pig farm itself, while others cannot. The key is that managers should consider the entire actual pig production situation and solve them step by step according to their order of importance, rather than trying to grasp everything at once.
--------------------------------------
Pig farming still needs 3.5:1 now? What era is the original poster from?
--------------------------------------
Very good material. Yes, these are all invisible wastes. Support.
--------------------------------------
Summarized very well.
--------------------------------------
What was said is still fairly comprehensive.
--------------------------------------
Summarized very well. It should be said that this kind of waste exists in many aspects, including in ourselves.
--------------------------------------
I learned something. The original poster analyzed it in great detail.
--------------------------------------
Well summarized. I learned something!
--------------------------------------
Reply to 5#drj
This is my work from 2003. In addition, the feed-to-meat ratio is for the whole herd, including boar and sow feed. If the 0.5 amortized by boars and sows is removed, the feed-to-meat ratio for finishing pigs is 3:1, which is also a normal figure.
I. Feed waste
1. The waste of feed formulas that do not change with the seasons
Throughout the four seasons, temperatures differ, and pigs' nutritional needs also differ. But at present, whether it is a formula recommended by a feed mill or one designed by an expert, it is impossible for it to be suitable for all four seasons. Using a high-protein formula in winter causes protein waste, while using a high-energy formula in summer causes energy waste, and so on. If we can adjust the formula at the right time so that the feed-to-meat ratio for the whole herd drops from 3.5 to 3.4, then for a farm of 10,000 pigs, 10000 x 90 x 0.1 = 90000 kg of feed can be saved in one year, equivalent to more than 120,000 yuan.
2. The waste of using high-moisture corn without changing the formula
In autumn and winter, pig farmers often report that the quality of premix or concentrate is poor and that pigs eat but do not grow. Based on my own understanding, the cause of slow pig growth is not the quality of the premix or concentrate, but the excessive moisture content of the corn at that time. Because in autumn and winter, temperatures are lower, and pigs' energy requirements are greater than in spring and summer. At this time, the corn is mostly newly harvested corn with a moisture content often above 20%, so the mixed feed has insufficient energy. If the formula is not modified and a fixed feeding program is followed, energy deficiency will definitely occur, affecting normal pig growth. The solution to this problem is very simple. First, with other ingredients unchanged, increase the proportion of corn and at the same time increase the feeding amount. Second, while using wet corn, supplement with high-energy feed such as oils and fats, which is suitable for suckling pig feed or piglet feed that requires a high energy concentration.
3. The waste of processing feed not according to the formula
There are several situations. First, ingredients are not weighed when processing feed. Second, when one ingredient is lacking, another ingredient is readily used as a substitute. Third, inferior ingredients are passed off as good ones, such as using wet corn instead of dry corn. All three situations undermine the rationality of the feed formula and affect feed utilization.
4. The waste of uneven mixing
Uneven mixing has occurred on many pig farms. Manual feed mixing goes without saying, but even machine mixing often results in uneven mixing. In some cases, material is discharged while grinding; in others, mixing time is insufficient. The easiest thing to overlook is adding drugs or trace additives to feed by pouring them directly into the mixer without premixing. When several dozen grams of medicine are added to over a thousand jin of feed, it is very difficult to mix evenly.
5. The waste of large pigs eating piglet feed
It is often seen that piglets eat suckling pig feed, growing pigs eat piglet feed, and large pigs eat growing pig feed, all of which cause feed waste. Even more serious is letting replacement gilts eat finishing pig feed, which greatly delays the estrus time of sows and affects normal mating. These may seem unimportant, but if you calculate carefully, you will be greatly surprised.
II. Medicine waste
1. The waste of passing off inferior goods as good ones
The medicine market is very chaotic now. The same product from different manufacturers can differ greatly in price, sometimes even by several times. I once saw oxytetracycline raw powder in the same pharmacy priced from forty yuan to eighty yuan. Using medicines at different price levels produces different effects. The waste mentioned here means that using inferior medicines wastes treatment time and our confidence in a certain medicine. If this happens, we may abandon a very good drug because of using an inferior one once. If a boss pursues low prices one-sidedly when purchasing medicines, over time the veterinarian will have no medicine available.
2. The waste of uneven mixing when adding medicine
This is a problem that still troubles me to this day. Adding medicine to feed and adding medicine to drinking water are already popular methods, but there is no mixing method that all pig farms can accept. I once summarized a stepwise dilution method and also proposed a pyramid mixing method, but in practice very few people use them because they find them troublesome. Now when adding medicine, some mix it in the feed cart, some mix it on the ground, and some mix it after adding water, but none of these can mix the feed evenly. Watching medicine waste continue while being powerless to do anything, I hope to see a suitable method online or in a magazine.
3. The waste of improper use methods
This situation appears in the following cases: (1) Adding medicine to feed for pigs that have already refused to eat. (2) Using drinking water administration for drugs that are insoluble in water. (3) Using preventive doses for pig herds that are already diseased. In the above three cases, treatment is ineffective or very poor, and medicine waste is unavoidable. Therefore, when using medicine for a large group, the condition of the pig herd should be considered and medicine should be used according to the symptoms.
4. The waste of using medicine indiscriminately when there is no disease
There are so many pig diseases and their harm is so great that people in the pig industry turn pale at the mention of disease. Some advocate long-term high-dose medication for control, and quite a few farms have achieved good results with this method, which has been accepted by people. But I have a different view on this approach, not only because large amounts of medication increase costs, but more importantly because after long-term high-dose medication, once the medication is stopped, disease outbreaks may be triggered. This also leads to the abnormal phenomenon that suckling piglets are easy to raise but nursery pigs are difficult to raise, and when nursery pigs are raised well, problems appear in the growing-finishing stage.
5. The waste of using attenuated bacterial vaccines together with antibiotics
Vaccination prevention and medication prevention are both effective measures for controlling bacterial infectious diseases, but using the two at the same time does not produce good results. Because attenuated bacterial vaccines are still live bacteria, if antibiotics are used at the same time, these vaccines will be killed by the antibiotics and will not achieve the purpose of stimulating the pig body to produce immunity. This not only causes waste of vaccines, but also misleads our thinking, because pigs that have already been vaccinated still contract the disease.
III. Waste of pigs
1. The waste of raising ineffective boars and sows
A normal pig farm's sows produce 2.2 litters per year, with more than 10 live piglets per litter, and each boar should guarantee mating for 20-30 sows. If a pig farm has not reached the above indicators, it is very likely that quite a few ineffective sows are being raised. Ineffective boars and sows mainly include the following: (1) Sows that have not been in estrus for a long time. (2) Sows that repeatedly return to estrus after mating. (3) Sows with habitual abortion. (4) Sows housed in the gestation barn but that do not return to estrus. (5) Sows with few piglets born or poor lactation performance. (6) Boars with limb and hoof disease that cannot be used. (7) Boars used at very low frequency. (8) Boars with poor semen quality and low conception rates after mating, and so on. Raising these boars and sows wastes manpower, feed, pens, and so on, and they should be culled in time.
2. The waste of too long a time before finishing pigs are marketed
This is a phenomenon that appears on some pig farms with restricted feeding. To ensure the pigs' lean body shape, feed intake is strictly restricted. Pigs that could have been marketed in 160 days are instead raised to 180 days, and some even to 200 days. I think this is a serious waste, because for each additional day of raising, the pig's maintenance feeding also increases by one day. If maintenance feeding requires 1 kg of feed per day, then raising them for an extra twenty days requires an extra 20 kg of feed, equivalent to more than thirty yuan in cost. For a large-scale pig farm, this amount is very large.
3. The waste caused by inadequate technical skills
This phenomenon is very common, such as casually adding feed to piglets without observing their appetite, causing leftovers or insufficiency; mechanically feeding pregnant sows without checking their body condition, causing them to become too fat or too thin; and mating without considering the timing, causing low conception rates and few piglets born, and so on. All of these are caused by a lack of technical skills and can only be solved by strengthening technical capacity.
4. The waste of raising worthless pigs
Worthless pigs are mainly some diseased, weak, and stunted pigs. The five types of pigs not worth treating proposed by Teacher Wu Zengjian all belong to worthless pigs, such as pigs that cannot be cured, pigs whose economic value after cure is not great, pigs whose treatment is labor-intensive and time-consuming, pigs that are highly contagious and harmful, and pigs whose treatment costs are too high. These pigs are better culled in time; otherwise they waste manpower, medicine, and energy, and ultimately produce very little return.
IV. Other wastes
1. Waste of people - overqualification for small use and underqualification for great use
The waste of people on pig farms is also very serious. Overqualification for small use wastes an individual's abilities and skills, while underqualification for great use wastes precious time and the pig farm's profits. A few years ago, there was constant discussion about the unreasonable phenomenon of outsiders managing insiders in the pig industry. Now this problem has not truly improved, because although the people currently engaged in management have diplomas in animal husbandry, they lack management ability. This is a concrete manifestation of underqualification for great use, because without management ability, they waste the ability of other employees to perform.
2. Waste of money - good steel should be used on the blade
Many pig farms have an obvious problem: once pig farming becomes profitable, a large amount of capital is spent on expansion. The farm scale expands, but the farm's returns do not improve greatly or even decrease. So I think that rather than spending limited funds on expanding scale, it is better to use them to improve technical content or upgrade pig housing facilities, thereby increasing output per unit. Dr. Sun said, if raising six hundred sows and raising eight hundred sows yield the same profit, should we raise six hundred or eight hundred?
3. The waste of poor planning
Poor planning is common on pig farms. Poor capital planning leads to feed shortages and medicine shortages. Poor mating planning and overly concentrated mating lead to suckling piglets being forced to be weaned early, nursery piglets being transferred to growing barns at insufficient body weight, and finishing pigs having to be marketed early, reducing pig profits. Poor feed planning leads to stockpiling or shortages, frequent changes in feed formulas, and effects on use results, and so on. The losses caused by the above situations are something every pig raiser can experience, and we can also call it waste.
4. The waste of information resources
There are many sources of information, such as newspapers, the internet, telephone, and text messages. If fully utilized, greater returns can be obtained. Of course, information resources must be timely, reliable, and more importantly scientific. I once encountered a pig farm owner who subjectively inferred that live pigs would rise in price, so he stockpiled a large number of live pigs, but what came was a drop in pig prices. The loss on five hundred finishing pigs reached more than twenty thousand yuan. If reliable information could have been obtained in time, these losses could have been avoided.
The above only lists part of the waste phenomena. I hope it can play a role in attracting better ideas, so that more waste phenomena can be exposed and the attention of colleagues in the pig industry can be drawn.
--------------------------------------
Thank you very much to the original poster for sharing!
--------------------------------------
The various wastes during feed storage and feeding should not be ignored either.
--------------------------------------
Some wastes can be controlled by the pig farm itself, while others cannot. The key is that managers should consider the entire actual pig production situation and solve them step by step according to their order of importance, rather than trying to grasp everything at once.
--------------------------------------
Pig farming still needs 3.5:1 now? What era is the original poster from?
--------------------------------------
Very good material. Yes, these are all invisible wastes. Support.
--------------------------------------
Summarized very well.
--------------------------------------
What was said is still fairly comprehensive.
--------------------------------------
Summarized very well. It should be said that this kind of waste exists in many aspects, including in ourselves.
--------------------------------------
I learned something. The original poster analyzed it in great detail.
--------------------------------------
Well summarized. I learned something!
--------------------------------------
Reply to 5#drj
This is my work from 2003. In addition, the feed-to-meat ratio is for the whole herd, including boar and sow feed. If the 0.5 amortized by boars and sows is removed, the feed-to-meat ratio for finishing pigs is 3:1, which is also a normal figure.