AgriSwine Asia

Pig Farm Turnaround: Recovering Underperforming Farms

An underperforming pig farm rarely has one problem. Low output, high deaths and rising costs usually feed each other, and the people on the farm are often too close to see where it started. A turnaround means finding the real causes quickly, fixing the ones that matter most first, and putting the routines in place so the farm stays fixed.

Pigs, People or Procedure

Every problem I find is sorted into one of three groups before I recommend a fix:

  • Pigs: health, genetics, nutrition and the environment the pigs live in.
  • People: the manager, the team, their skills and how they are organised.
  • Procedure: the routines, how they are written, and whether they are followed.

It sounds simple, but it stops money being spent on the wrong fix: a new vaccine for a problem that is really in the farrowing routine, or new staff for a problem that is really in the building.

How a turnaround runs

  1. Rapid assessment. Records reviewed before the visit, then time in every stage of production, from the gate to the loading bay.
  2. Priorities. A short written plan: the few changes that will move PSY, mortality and cost the most, in order.
  3. On-farm work. Hands-on time with the team to put the changes in place, with procedures and training where they are needed.
  4. Follow-up. Weekly figures tracked against the plan, and return visits until the results hold.

What has been done before

On farms I have managed, PSY rose to 27.9, a gain of 6.5 pigs per sow in 12 months, and renegotiating vaccine and medication contracts cut that spend by 25% in a 6,000-sow multi-site operation in Ireland. I was a finalist for UK Pig Farmer of the Year in 2019. On one new farm running at 75% of capacity, a single change in the service barn took gilt conception from 55% to 100%: read the case study.

Related services: production performance, cost of production reduction and training and SOPs.

Talk to Lee

Tell me what is going wrong and what the figures look like. I will arrange a first call and propose a scope of work before anything is agreed.