It’s one of the most wonderful times of the year, and no it’s not Christmas, it’s harvest time! Corn stalks flying and bean stubble being made is a farmer’s dream and at the forefront of everyone’s mind. However, we can’t forget about our 4-legged friends in our barns. The importance of keeping the right ration and right amount of feed in front of our pigs cannot be overlooked. Feed outages and feed wastage can both result in poorer performance, increased mortality and negatively impact the bottom line.

As you are called away from your barns more often, don’t forget these important things to keep in mind:

• Check that feeder adjustments are set correctly. Feeders left wide open will lead to feed wastage that will negatively impact feed conversions up to one tenth. Although feed ingredient prices have come down, one tenth of feed conversion is still worth $2.85/pig. Feeders set too tight result in feed restrictions in which translates to poorer growth performance. (See the recommended ideal pan coverage in the image at right.)
• Most feeders are not built with enough feed capacity for late finishing pigs to make it an entire day with only one filling. Two or more feed outages in late finishing can affect negatively market weights, with more than two outages reducing market weight up to 10 lbs. In addition, feed outages at any point in the life of the pig can result in increased mortality from twisted gut and hemorrhagic bowels. Be sure to continue checking barns two times a day, even if the second check is just to make sure every feeder is full in the barn.
• Always check bin fill levels and that the correct bin slides are open prior to leaving the site. This will help confirm the amount of feed present at the site and verify no feed hangups have occurred.
• Be proactive on ordering feed and don’t try to stretch out feed deliveries, especially going into weekends. It is cheaper to order less feed to fill up a bin prior to the weekend than it is to run out of feed or to pay for an emergency same day order of feed. There are several feed budgeting tools available, to the right is an example of a feed intake chart to help predict feed usage.
• New crop corn is typically higher quality than the corn we just cleaned out of bins. However, it is important to test for mycotoxins to gauge corn quality from this year’s crop. No two crops are the same and it’s good to know if we may have mycotoxins before the pig tells us. Reach out to your nutritionist to get a new crop corn sample submitted.

 

Article by Hayden Kerkaert

Hayden Kerkaert grew up on a diverse livestock farm and earned a B.S. in Animal Science from South Dakota State University in 2018, followed by an M.S. in Swine Nutrition from Kansas State University in 2020. He joined PIPESTONE as a nutritionist in 2020, where he focuses on swine health and performance.