Where do pigs die and what impact do they have on the system?
Pig Attrition
From conception to slaughter, pigs are lost from the
production cycle. The impact of these losses is often under appreciated by
producers.
Analysis of when pigs are lost and their impact on the
production system can be appreciated by the following table.
The spreadsheet uses $Au 2008 cost examples.
Down load the
excel2003 spreadsheet The individual costs of a dead pig
Link to an
interactive data page
This accumulative loss to a pig farm can be
illustrated graphically.
The black line is a trend-line.
This can be further examined looking at each age group
individually
It is clear that the major areas of loss are
associated with the pre-weaning mortality then the grower mortality and the
pork sales. The losses associated with
pork sales is generally under-appreciated, however, these numbers are on paper. The welfare of individual pigs and the requirements
(and advantages) of all-in/all-out force producers to sell non-bacon pigs.
Major areas of loss in a pig production system
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Pre-weaning death (crushed) |
Nursery death |
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Nursery culls |
Grower death |
Grower culls (Ileitis) |
Pork sales (last pigs left) |
The population of pigs in a batch as affected by the
losses of pigs
Batch from 10 sow farrowed – with a total born of 121
pigs, 100 weaned and 92 sold as full price bacon pigs
