Swine Finishing Microcomputer Program—Development of a Swine Feeder to Finish Microcomputer Program

Accurate estimation of the weight gain occurring in a growing pig can be accomplished when nutrient intake along with gender, genetic potential for lean tissue accretion, current live weight, and environmental circumstances are known and applied mathematically to a series of equations. The Swine Monitor, a personal computer program developed at Iowa State University, utilizes these variables in a set of equations that is capable of providing an estimation of pig weight gains such that a paired Student’s T statistical evaluation fails to indicate a significant difference from actual weight gains for barrows and for gilts. Thus, with the use of this program it is possible to tie input costs and income receipts with pig growth for pigs being monitored under actual production situations and enables one to track both pig and monetary performance throughout the grower-to-finish phase on a continuous and current basis. Research QuestionMarket hog production has characteristics similar to other agricultural products regarding the variable and continually changing margin between cost and return. The slow-but-steady development of the pig can be viewed in terms of a finished product moving into and out of optimal marketing windows. Optimal, both in terms of the carcass desired by the packers and the income-cost implications of producing the live market hog. The optimal carcass desired by the packer can be identified by the packer’s payment schedule. But, depending on the cost of production, that hog may not be the most favorable hog for the producer to market. The goal of our project was to provide assistance in monitoring the production costs, nutrient intake, environment, and genetic merit of incoming pigs, so as to calculate breakeven value and subsequent return, which would allow the producer to discover optimal marketing windows for the finished hogs. Literature SummaryThe State of Iowa Livestock Summary, published yearly by the Iowa State Univ. Animal Science Extension Service, shows a fair difference in production costs and pig performance among producers in a relatively uniform area. These differences require individual attention to address the economic aspects of producing market hogs accurately and therefore prompt the user for periodic inputs of actual cost and income when monitoring monetary performance. Likewise, pigs of a similar background and environment do not all grow the same, but many of the differences are not easily identified. Pigs can, however, be sorted into uniform groups by making use of similarities such as gender, sire lines, and environment. The grouping allows for the unknown factors contributing to differences in weight gain to be averaged out while applying the known factors such as nutrient intake to the various characteristics describing the group to arrive at a reasonable estimate of weight gain. Then, by applying weight gain to the subsequent monetary inputs one can immediately calculate the current per-pound pig value at the farm. Market value can then be factored in to arrive at a current return, which can be compared to the cost of production so as to identify optimal marketing weights. Study DescriptionThe problem can be analyzed in terms of several groups of mathematical equations. The equations used to describe growth were compiled from earlier data and attempts at modeling hog growth. Monetary transactions were dealt according to standard accounting procedures. Due to the number of calculations required to maintain and summarize weight and monetary data, and since this problem requires fairly immediate attention at the farm, the problem was best addressed by providing producers with capable microcomputer software. Therefore, software was developed to be compatible with a Windows user interface. The program was assembled under the title of the Iowa State Swine Monitoring Program and tested by Iowa hog producers and Iowa Area Livestock Extension Specialists. Applied QuestionsHow accurate is the program? Provided that the inputs are correctly measured and recorded, and that whole pens (rather than individual pigs) are monitored, the program appears to estimate growth well. There may be some tendency to overestimate early weight gains and underestimate the gains later in the finishing period (refer to Fig. 2 and 3). Can profitable marketing windows be identified? Provided that input values regarding cost are accurate and weight gain is estimated correctly, this program can provide current cost-per-pound-of-gain and breakeven values for the pigs being produced. This is only half of the process in identifying profitable marketing windows, because both the cost of production and the market value at a given time must be considered. Therefore, optimal marketing windows can be identified only when the user applies market value to the calculated production cost.