2012 Price of Hog Feed

February 6, 2012

I did some figurin’ on hog feed prices.  I like to do this every year.  The current prices I’m using include: corn $.10/lb, soybean meal $.17/lb, pig premix $.40/lb, sow premix $.49/lb.  This is using $5.60 per bushel corn and $340/ton soybean meal.

I put 150 lbs. of sow premix in every ton of sow feed and 100 lbs. of pig premix in every ton of pig feed.

The sow gestation ration uses 250 lbs of soybean meal per ton.  The sow lactation ration uses 540 lbs of soybean meal per ton.  So if you do all the math, gestation ration is $.14/lb and lactation ration is $.15/lb.

The pig rations use anywhere from 250 lbs of soybean meal per ton for the largest pigs to 600 lbs of soybean meal per ton for the smallest pigs.  I adjust the amount of soybean meal based on my feed budget and the size of the pigs.

After all the math, the cheapest ration for the largest pigs is $.12/lb and the most expensive ration for the smallest pigs is $.15/lb, with the in between rations falling in between.

There are more expensive rations for smaller pigs, but with my new farrowing system I plan to let the piglets nurse longer, thereby eliminating the need for the more expensive starter pig diets.

These rations are near the historical highs, but not quite as high as last year.  I think these prices are the new normal and we will learn to live with them.

I plan on experimenting with more grazing and feeding forages and alternative feedstuffs this year.  I’ll have feed and production records to analyze next year at this time.

8 Comments | Curious hogs, Curious livestock costs, Curious prices | Permalink
Posted by curiousfarmer

Swine Nesting Instinct

February 2, 2012

I knew sows make nests before they farrow.  I didn’t know they spend so much time and effort on their nests after they farrow.

Look at this gilt raking the bedding with her front foot.  The bedding was more or less even, but she took one side of the pen down to the lime chip layer, and elevated the other side a foot or more.  This had to take hours.

I watched one gilt tear bedding off a bale with her mouth and carry it to her nest.  All of them do it to some extent.  Below is another picture showing a litter in an elevated nest.

4 Comments | Curious hogs | Permalink
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Forage for Swine: Oat Bale for Sows

February 1, 2012

Inspired by Walter Jeffries, who raises hogs with forage as the primary feedstuff, I decided to feed the sows a round bale of oats.  I baled these last summer when my oat fields blew down in a storm.

My plan had been to combine the oats, removing the oats from the straw, then bale the straw for bedding.  I had to use a backup plan, and cut the oats before they were ready to be harvested, and bale them as forage.

Cattle will readily eat this forage, but I hadn’t considered feeding it to swine until reading Walter’s blog.  It’s notable that I’m being inspired by the outliers.  Thank you, Walter.

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Duroc Gilt, Nursing Piglets

January 24, 2012

This is a picture of one of the most recent litters.  I’ve had three littermate Duroc gilts farrow.  Each is an excellent mother.

The Duroc breed is not considered good for mothering ability.  There are some genetic lines within the breed, however, which have been selected for mothering ability.  I’ve been selecting from within these genetic lines for a while.

Farrowing crates can mask poor mothering ability, and bring the worst performers closer to the mean.  Farrowing without crates allows a fuller expression of a sow’s maternal instincts.  I’m happy to see positive results from my years of selection.

1 Comment | Curious genetics, Curious hogs | Permalink
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Farrowing in Hoop Building in January

January 22, 2012

Splitting up farming with my parents means I needed to find a different way to farrow.  We used a combination of crates and pens in a heated farrowing barn on my parents’ farm.  It worked well.  Last year we average 10 piglets born alive and 9 piglets weaned per litter.

I was excited to try farrowing in pens, because it’s a new challenge, and because I don’t like crates.  Crates do save piglets from crushing, however, so the question is, can I raise enough piglets this way to be economically viable?

Pictured above, I built ten farrowing pens in one of my hoop buildings so each sow and litter could farrow in privacy.  I used a combination of round bales of bedding and wire panels.  I used the bedding bales to make the pens larger, and to have dry bedding accessible at all times.

I didn’t think it would work very well to farrow in an unheated barn in January.  But I didn’t have many due to farrow, so I thought I would try it, so I could learn.

The first gilt farrowed two weeks ago when the temperature was in the 20′s.  The air temperature in the hoop building is about ten degrees warmer than outside.  She and the piglets did fine.  She had eleven born alive and one stillborn.  You can see the dead stillborn piglet mixed in with the placenta in the picture below.  The gilt laid on four piglets during the first 48 hours.  The younger the piglets are, the more vulnerable they are to crushing.  The remaining seven piglets are doing well.

The next two gilts farrowed during an extremely cold time.  Temps were around zero F with below zero wind chills.  Those piglets didn’t do well.  18 out of 20 piglets froze or were crushed in the first few days.

Two more gilts farrowed last night.  Temps are in the 30′s.  They are doing well.

Pictured below is a behavioral trait I want to select for genetically.  Instead of just flopping down and crushing piglets, the gilt scoops out a bowl in the straw with her snout, kneels on her front legs, thereby extending her udder all the way down into the straw, then lies down.  Very few piglets will be crushed this way.

4 Comments | Curious farmer, Curious hogs, Curious livestock costs | Permalink
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Sow and Calves, Getting Acquainted

December 12, 2011

The steer calves, with one adventurous sow.

You can see the two-strand electric fence.  In the industry we refer to this as a psychological fence.  Hogs and cattle are easily trained to electric fence.  The fence around the other lot is a physical fence, with five-foot high cattle panels and two boards, attached to wooden posts.

While I hate to anthropomorphize and say they’re  friends, I will say they’ve gotten acquainted.

2 Comments | Curious cattle, Curious farmer, Curious hogs | Permalink
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Sow Housing

December 10, 2011

Wednesday was a big day for my new farm.  We moved 17 sows and 2 boars to my farm.  The sows have always been housed on my parents’ farm, but since we are splitting up our farms, I needed to figure out sow housing on my farm.

I could have used the hoop barns, as I have used them for sows with litters and gestating sows, from time to time when I had room.  But I figured I would need all three hoop barns for growing pigs, so I brainstormed and decided to use the former dairy barn which is the bottom of  my big old red barn.

A carpenter friend helped me shore up the old barn door and build the sliding door you see pictured below.  I came up with that so I could lock the sows in or out securely, and I didn’t want a door which swung, because the bedding could pile up next to the door and make it difficult to operate.

The sows exit the barn into the cattle lot.  This is where the steer calves eat their hay and drink their water.  This lot is fenced securely, but I also built another lot to give the calves more room, which is fenced with a two-strand electric fence.

So the time had come to make the move, but I had no idea how it would work.  The variables I was unsure of included:

1.Would the sows find and go in the barn?

2. Would the cattle and sows get along, or would they scare each other through the fence?

3. Would the sows see the electric fence, get shocked, then back away instead of going through and destroying it?

This is how I managed the situation.  I kept the calves and sows separated during the morning.  I fed some grain in the entrance of the barn to lure sows in.

How did it work?  The sows found the barn and all but one were sleeping in it by night.  I couldn’t get the one to go in, so I left the door open all night.  The calves were scared of the sows, but in a curious way with no stampeding.  A few sows were shocked by the electric fence and retreated without destroying it.

What didn’t work?  The sows enjoyed lounging by the calves’ hay, so the calves wouldn’t eat their hay.  I moved the hay further away so the calves could eat.

An unanticipated problem was the automatic waterer was frozen.  I put in a new Ritchie so the sows could drink, which I’ll post about later. I panicked for a moment, but all I had to do was turn the thermostat up.

The photo above shows a boar I call “Able” breeding.  Standing at the front of the sow is “Bewilder”, my other herd boar I wrote about earlier in the year.

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Commodities, Food, Inflation

November 20, 2011

The office of Lynch Livestock, Iowa.  We sold cull sows last week.  Leroy always treats us well, but I was shocked with our price.  He paid $.61 per pound for the heaviest sows weighing over 600 pounds.  It was about $370 per sow.  I can remember when I was pleased with $200 per sow.

Hog, cattle, corn, and other commodity prices are at or near historic highs.  I’ve been trying to understand why this is happening and if it’s going to continue.  Our direct-market meat used to be priced at a premium, paying us for the extra costs involved with hoop-house pork and grass-finished beef.  But the commodity markets have narrowed that premium, and I’m rethinking it.  Maybe grass-finished beef should be cheaper, since the cattle aren’t being fed high-priced corn?

A buddy turned me on to Chris Martenson.  Chris says there is unprecedented levels of money and debt.  Inflation is just more money chasing after the same amount of resources.  The USA and world carry so much debt, there are only two ways out; default, or print more money.  If more money continues to enter circulation, inflation will ensue.  Inflation erodes wealth, because a dollar today buys less in the future.

Is this what’s happening in agriculture?  We are certainly handling more money.  But the costs of our inputs: fertilizer, corn, soybean meal, metal, wood, machinery, have all risen.  Should we save for a rainy day or buy now?

Toasted Tofu sent me a link about how Goldman Sachs created the food crisis.  It said that these huge hedge funds have been buying commodities, and only buying, and this has driven up the price of commodities.  An error in the article says that corn prices just kept going up.  Actually, in the last few years, corn went up to $7 per bushel, dropped back under $4, and then went back up over $7.  There is definitely more volatility.  My grandfather remembers when corn was $1 per bushel, only moving a few cents up or down for years and years.

As you can probably tell by this disjointed post, I don’t really understand what’s happening, or what’s going to happen.  I guess I’ll continue to use this blog to post what is actually happening to me, and the prices I incur and receive.  History always becomes a clear, concise, obvious story, but the future is always uncertain, with only fools and experts making obvious predictions.

3 Comments | Curious business, Curious hogs, Curious meat | Permalink
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A Visit to Becker Lane Organic Farm

September 20, 2011

Jude Becker, of Becker Lane Organic Farm.  Jude is an Iowa State graduate, and probably the largest outdoor pig producer in the US.  He supplies fresh, organic pork, year- around, to many discerning customers, including Whole Foods.  Jude even has a quote from Michael Pollan, raving about his pork.

I knew I was close to the right farm when I saw farrowing huts stretching over the horizon.  Jude has three full-time employees.  Production is intensive and extensive.  Each of these huts is individually fenced, with one sow and litter in each pen.  Two sows share a water, and each is fed individually, once a day.  The shelters in the right of the photo are turned on their side, and being disinfected before being used for another litter.

Sow with litter, in farrowing hut.  Jude has tried cheaper huts, but finally settled on the cadillac of farrowing huts, John Booth, imported from the UK.  Huts are insulated, so Jude is able to farrow in the heat of summer, and the cold of winter.

Piglet crushing is still a problem.  Jude is still searching for the best genetics for outdoor pig production.  His current philosophy is to have a super-maternal sow, bred to an excellent meat-quality boar.  Jude uses artificial insemination to breed his sows.

Pig drinking.  One well supplies water to all his pigs.  Most of his equipment has been imported from Europe, as they are years ahead of the US with outdoor pig production.


Good news, bad news.  I’m heartened to see pigs consistently kept in with a two-strand electric fence.  I’m disheartened to see the destruction of Jude’s pastures from the pigs’ incessant rooting.  Jude admits this is a major hurdle for outdoor pig production.

Going to Jude’s farm, I hoped to find a protocol which I could copy.  But, like most things in life, I realize I’m still going to have to find my own way.

Thank you Jude, for being a gracious host, giving me many ideas, and hopefully saving me some troubles.

1 Comment | Curious farmer, Curious hogs | Permalink
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Shepherd’s Showpig Project: Conclusion

July 25, 2011

Shepherd, washing his showpigs.  After we washed them, we took them to the fair where they were weighed and ultrasounded for backfat and loin-muscle-area.  These three measurements are used in a formula to determine percent lean, which is how the pigs are ranked in the carcass show, pictured below.

The next day was the show.  Shepherd practiced walking them everyday, and the practice paid off, as the pigs followed his direction.  The judge was less impressed, however, and awarded Shepherd a white and a pink ribbon.   Winning showpigs today are extremely wide-made, with bulging muscles.  All of this muscle can cause structural problems, though, and the result is pigs which don’t handle stress well.

Shepherd’s pigs were very functional and problem-free, which are traits that are difficult to recognize, as the absence of a problem is more conceptual in nature.  Shepherd’s black and white pig was in the top half of the carcass show, though, and received a red ribbon.  This helps me know we have the muscle, it’s just in a more functional package.

Shepherd’s black and white pig weighed 242 lbs. and his white one weighed 283 lbs.  They gained 371 lbs. in 102 days for a rate of gain of  1.8 lbs. each.   They ate 1574 lbs. of feed, for an average of 7.5  lbs. per day for each of them.  They ate 4.2 lbs. of feed for every lb. they gained.

It was a very rewarding experience for Shepherd and the whole family.  I really appreciate all the people who help make the fair.

4 Comments | Curious children, Curious hogs, Curious livestock costs | Permalink
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