System Grow Finish, a division of Pipestone, offers regular visits by field supervisors, a complete records service and veterinary consultation in a full management package or a la carte. The objective of System Grow Finish is to identify opportunities for greater profitability on the farm of each participating swine producer.

“For instance, we’ve been able to show producers how they can improve their profitability by as much as $3-5 per pig simply by improving their feed conversion,” states Jenna Hauglid, an information technician with System Grow Finish.

Field Supervisors work with producers to get their feeder pigs started correctly. They monitor feeder adjustments, water intake, and barn temperatures to insure pigs are comfortable and can grow at the maximum rate. At the end of the growing stage, these supervisors help producers decide where to market their pigs, based on weight and cost of production.

Records Service collects information from producers and generates weekly, monthly, and quarterly reports including summaries and graphs showing trend lines on key factors, like feed conversion, which affect profitability. When their pigs are sold, producers receive feedback on how well they did and what they could do to improve.

Veterinary Consultation is provided by Dr. Barry Kerkaert, president of System Grow Finish.

“System Grow Finish has provided management services in these three areas for the past three years,” says Dr. Kerkaert, noting that 32 producers currently make use of all or a portion of these services. “Our goal is to make these producers more profitable by sharing with them, in a timely fashion, how they are doing in growing and marketing their pigs and what they could do to maximize their returns.”

One aspect of these services involves pointing out weight targets and how close each producer gets to those targets. After the sale, a field supervisor sits down with the producer and reviews missed opportunities in dollars and cents, with an eye toward improving profitability with the next batch.

“Each producer is shown their trend lines so they know where they can improve,” explains Dr. Kerkaert. “At the same time, each producer’s results are benchmarked quarterly against other producers in System Grow Finish and annually with other industry leaders.”

“Raising swine today should be profitable,” he reasons, “but producers need to be shown where the profit opportunities lie.”

“Individuals can only do so much and really good producers are usually hands-on guys who are not sitting in the office all day,” observes Dr. Kerkaert. “System Grow Finish provides good quality, high integrity data to these producers, allowing them to manage their hog operations from the outside and not have to go home and do records until midnight.”

“To raise a pig today costs $180,” he points out. “To spend a fraction of that cost to learn whether you are profitable is not unreasonable.”

Call Pipestone Veterinary Clinic at 800-658-2523 to learn more about System Grow Finish or ask your herd veterinarian.