Swine Grist - Winter 2019

Swine Grist

A PERIODIC NEWSLETTER PRODUCED

BY GRAND VALLEY FORTIFIERS LTD. VOLUME 6, ISSUE 4 | WINTER 2019

Dear Friends, This summer and fall proved to be very beautiful seasons but didn’t come without some challenges. While the months of September and October thankfully provided additional heat to help finish the corn crop, the moisture also persisted and caused delays in harvesting soy beans and now corn. Thankfully the corn crop, although high in moisture, is proving much cleaner than last year, with low to non-existent mold and mycotoxin levels. We pray that producers who still have crops to bring in, are able to do so successfully, during the month of December. Ian has written a timely update on the pork market and the factors effecting pricing going into 2020.

The conditions look promising and hopefully we’ll see producers enjoy some strong prices for their pork in 2020. We’re also excited to welcome Cheryl Lehman to the team and Victoria shares some interesting results around iron supplementation and production improvement research. Don’t miss Martin’s article on the last page highlighting the importance of sow cards. Knowing your sow productivity details is key for great production. Wishing you and your family a wonderful Christmas as you celebrate the birth of Jesus our Saviour. God bless from the management and staff of Grand Valley Fortifiers.

Sincerely, Jim Ross, Founder & Chairman

WHERE ARE PORK PRICES GOING IN 2020?

by: IAN ROSS President & CEO, Grand Valley Fortifiers

A

s we approach the end of 2019, many Canadian pork producers will be looking forward to saying “good bye” to 2019 and “hello” to 2020, with the hopes of a much more positive and profitable year ahead. Recognizing that hog price volatility has been extreme throughout the year and knowing that many Ontario pork producers struggled with the productivity and growth impacts of poor corn quality from last fall’s harvest, 2019 has been described as a slow strangulation of profitability that was reminiscent of 1998.

Although late, difficult to get off the muddy fields and challenging to dry with the propane shortage, this year’s corn crop looks to be of good quality and will likely result in better intake, growth rates and sow productivity in swine farms this year. All of the new corn mycotoxin tests that we at Grand Valley Fortifiers have received to date have shown very low levels of DON, Zearalenone and T2. This is certainly encouraging.

So what about hog prices for 2020 and beyond?

It is extremely difficult to understand how Canadian pork producers could experience many months of sub-cost of production pricing levels in 2019, with prices as low as $1.10/kg with the realities of global demand and global supply of pork. Even prior to the ASF spread across China, most of Asia and a growing percentage of Europe, the emerging middle class in Asia was going to demand a great deal more meat to be produced than the world has ever seen. Marry this reality with the impact on pork supply by ASF and you have a “perfect storm” that should have resulted in very high North American pork prices through most of 2019.

Dr. Samuel Waititu, Monogastric Nutritionist AB / SK: 1-866-610-5770 MB: 1-866-626-3933 www.fortifiednutritionltd.com

In the last number of months, most global market analysts have reached a consensus that China will lose 50% of their sow herd by early 2020.

Assuming that this results in a decrease of 50% of pork production, this equates to 26 million tonnes of pork – the total production of the European Union, Canada and Japan combined. Vietnam is also in extreme danger of losing a very high percentage of its herd to ASF. We don’t often consider Vietnam to be a very large pork producer. The reality is that prior to ASF, Vietnam had 3 million sows compared to Canada’s 1 million sow herd.

Gira (Girag & Associates Sarl, France) forecasts in their China Market Assessment, October 25th, 2019, that Chinese pork imports from all countries will expand from about 1.2 million metric tonnes in 2018 to 2.2 million metric tonnes in 2019 and over 3 million metric tonnes by 2023.

Who have been the biggest pork exporters to China in the first eight months of 2019? RaboResearch indicates that Spain, Germany, Canada, Brazil, USA are the top five, all with substantive growth in volumes compared to first eight months 2018, notwithstanding the pork export ban Canada experienced and the trade war tariffs imposed on US pork.

Ian Ross, President & CEO | Jim Ross, Chairman Clarke Walker, VP & COO Dr. Martin Clunies, Senior Monogastric Nutritionist David Ross/Mike Peckover, Publishers

With increased imports of several million tonnes per year of all types of meat, China will encounter substantive logistical challenges as there simply is not enough cold storage in China costal areas to handle this meat volume increase. Already, countries like Spain are struggling with cold storage availability as they attempt to address their Chinese customer growing demands for pork volume.

No doubt, Ontario producers have read of the massive increases in pork prices in the EU and in China. INTL FCStone Inc. reports that the China market hog price per kg has moved from 12 yuan/kg in January 2019 to over 28 yuan/kg ($5.30 CAD/kg) in August 2019 – an increase in value by 2.4x. In the Netherlands the price has moved from 1.40 Euro/kg in January to just over 2.00 Euro/kg ($3.00 CAD/kg) in recent weeks – an increase in value of 50%.

When are Canadian producers going to experience these hog pricing levels? Clearly, the lifting of the China pork and beef export ban in Canada didn’t lift prices very much in the last few weeks. Unfortunately, the vast majority of Canadian hog producers have their market hogs priced by way of the Chicago Mercantile Exchange, the USDA reported price or the Midwest corn belt hog price – all USA based. If we weren’t sure whether U.S. markets were myopic, we certainly know it to be true now.

This being said, we are confident that with China’s dire need for several million additional tonnes of meat in 2020 and with U.S. livestock and meat producing companies salivating over this massive and now high-priced market, U.S./China meat trade will open and expand soon.

Once this occurs the CME lean hog futures will likely explode in price and finally Canadian pork producers will be able to enjoy prices akin to their European counterparts.

IRON SUPPLEMENTATION IN THE FARROWING CRATE

by: VICTORIA SEIP Production Improvement Specialist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

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uring the suckling period, adequate iron supplementation is crucial for piglets to have a properly functioning immune system and set them up for success for further production. This summer at Grand Valley Fortifiers, we worked with Dr. Robert Friendship and OVC to look at two different techniques for administering iron.

The first objective was to look at whether supplementing free choice iron enriched Sweet Peat™ could contribute to more pigs having a normal iron status at weaning. The second objective was to look at whether an oral iron paste supplemented in the first four days instead of injection could contribute to a normal iron status with free access to iron enriched Sweet Peat™. The injectable iron that was used was 1 cc of Gleptosil® and was given at day 4. The study results found that pigs that received 1 cc of Gleptosil® on day 4 and had free choice access to Sweet Peat™ very successfully had a normal level of iron (98.2 % of pigs).

Pigs that received the oral iron paste however were a little less consistently in the normal range (85.7%) with some pigs being iron deficient (10.7%) and a few pigs being anemic (3.6%). Our control group that received 1 cc of Gleptosil® at day 4 and no further supplementation proved that one shot of iron is simply not enough, with only 66.7% of pigs having a normal iron status. The benefit to providing piglets with free choice iron enriched Sweet Peat™ really lies with the ease of administration and less labour-intensive way of getting additional iron into the piglet, rather than administering a second injection. Sweet Peat™ provides many other benefits to the piglets to aid in gut development and added enrichment. As we see a trend towards larger piglets at weaning, bigger pigs require more iron supplementation due to their higher blood volume (1). We look forward to helping the success of your neonatal piglets by bringing you iron enriched Sweet Peat™ in 2020. n 1. Svoboda M, Vaňhara J, Berlinská J. Parenteral iron administration in suckling piglets – a review. Acta Vet Brno. 2017;86:249–61.

Could this be a pre-Christmas present for North American pork producers from Mr. Trump and Mr. Xi? We hope and pray so because this, coupled with good quality corn getting into silos these days, could make for a very fun and profitable 2020 for Canadian pork producers. n

Swine Grist INTRODUCING CHERYL LEHMANN

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he GVF Team welcomed Cheryl Lehmann in September to the new role of Management Information System Specialist.

Cheryl looks forward to putting her background in data management to use working closely with the Swine Team to develop and implement new Farm Business Information analysis, reporting and benchmarking tools. These tools will help our Team identify opportunities for improvements in production, and utilizing real time data, will assist our customers in making better business decisions which will ultimately improve the profitability of their swine operations.

If you have current production data that you would like to learn more about or wish to expand on the information you are currently collecting Cheryl can help you with that as well. Please feel free to contact Cheryl directly at 519-998-0307 or through your GVF rep.

We are excited about enhancing our service to our customers through new technology. Keep an eye on the GVF Swine Grist for updates in the future. n

TRIAL PERFORMANCE UPDATE

by: VICTORIA SEIP Production Improvement Specialist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

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ver the course of 2019, the GVF swine team has been working to conduct trial and benchmarking results in order to bring applicable results back to our customers. Much of our focus this year has been targeted towards benchmarking different nursery feed budgets, testing various starters and numbers of phases in conventional nursery settings.

The first group of trials looked at testing our more “complex” budget; starting with our first phase as Surge™ and feeding two subsequent phases. The second budget was “lower complexity” starting with Respond™ and transitioning onto one final phase. The feeding amounts can be seen in Table 1.

budget choices are producer specific and it comes down to whether they are looking for lower feed cost or improved performance and more profit.

After getting very successful results on our first set of trials, we decided to look at the difference in feeding a two vs. three phase budget response starting with Respond™ as the first phase starter. The budget that was fed can be seen in Table 2. Results showed that when feeding Respond™, along with BioForce® Piglet 180 and BioForce® Piglet 32, performance was improved with a lower feed conversion. The total feed cost and feed cost/ kg LWG was slightly higher when feeding more phases. This does, however, put more margin in the producer’s pocket (4%). The choice really depends on what the producer would like to get out of their nursery feeding program. If space and resources are limited, the two-phase Respond™ budget showed very successful performance with fewer resources. But, if the producer is looking for improved performance and more margin out of a nursery pig, the three-phase is likely a more optimal choice.

Table 2: Budget’s for Respond Two vs. Three Phase Trial Three-Phase Respond™

Two-Phase Respond™

BioSure Respond™

1 kg

2 kg

BioForce™ 180

3 kg

--

BioForce™ 32

Remain

Remain

Feed

We look forward to bringing more data and trial work results to our customers in 2020! We are excited to see more great results and production improvements from our nursery line of products and the positive influence they can make in the nursery.

For more information on your appropriate nursery budget, contact your Swine Specialist or Victoria Seip for more information. n

Table 1: Budget’s for “Complex” vs. “Low Complexity”Trial Budgets Feed

Surge™

Respond™

1 kg

–

–

2 kg

BioForce™ 180

4 kg

–

BioForce™ 32

Remain

Remain

BioSure Surge™ BioSure Respond™

We found that although the less complex Respond™ budget was less costly than the more complex Surge™ budget, performance was improved by starting with Surge™ and feeding two more phases. The Surge™ budget ended up with 3% greater margin over 42 days spent in the nursery as a result of added piglet gain along with a lower feed conversion.

Consistently, the Surge™ budget produced pigs that were 1 kg heavier coming out of the nursery; while the Respond™ budget was slightly less expensive in overall feed cost and cost/kg LWG. We were very pleased that these three trials confirmed our predictions that feeding less phases will have a lesser feed cost. However, starting with a slightly more dense starter feed followed by BioForce® Piglet 180 and BioForce® Piglet 32 will produce a heavier and more profitable pig out of the nursery. In the end,

for tifiednutritionltd.com

SOW CARDS: CRUCIAL TO SOW MANAGEMENT

by: MARTIN CLUNIES PhD., Monogastric Nutritionist, Grand Valley Fortifiers

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n an age of electronic devices and apps some “old school” (millennial term for paper) tools still hold key roles in modern pig farming. Of these “old school” tools, sow cards play a pivotal role in effective management of sow herds and in particular farrowing rooms. Traditionally, sow cards move with the sow as an identification and a record of historical performance data, while functioning to capture pertinent current production information for future evaluation. This historical information includes the sow’s date of birth, dates of first heat, when bred, when confirmed pregnant, due to farrow, farrowing interval, total number of piglets born, born alive, piglets stillborn, piglets fostered on and off, piglets died and reasons why, lactation length, piglets weaned, days to estrus, day bred, confirmed pregnant, and the cycle repeats. While much of this information may be used to retain or cull a sow, some of this information can be used to manage the sow in question.

Traditionally, individual sow performance is compared to other herd mates. In larger improvement minded operations, sow parameters are being compared to cohorts in larger data bases for genetic decisions, farm comparisons, etc. As data analysts review big data sets with many sows, certain correlations or relationships begin to appear.

What is becoming more apparent is that a number of the measures critical to the productivity of the herd may be influenced by a smaller proportion of the herd, in typical bell curve fashion. A case in point is the total piglets born and stillborn piglets. It is accepted that sows which give birth to large litters also have more stillborn piglets. Despite these known relationships approximately 35% of the sows in the herd produce more than 80% of the stillborn piglets. There are however, outlier sows with average litter numbers which have a large proportion of stillborn piglets, and this is highly repeatable from sow to sow. Similarly, the number of piglets a sow raises and weans, which may be dependant on a number of sow factors such as number of functional teats, milk-ability, sow behaviour, is all indicated by piglets weaned is highly repeatable number.

Together, these highly repeatable numbers can be used as a guide or tool to determine how the sow and her litter should be managed.

Using this information, the first question is, how likely is this sow to be a problem; if so where should she be placed in the farrowing room?

Do we locate those sows more likely to be problematic in a common area, much like the sick pens of a nursery room? It is much easier to manage animals in common groups than to search through the farrowing room daily to find those with known problems. The next question is will this sow need to be assisted during farrowing, if so should she be induced as to facilitate that assistance. Following that, how many piglets should she be asked to nurse based on previous number piglets weaned per lactation. Based on age or previous reproductive performance is this sow a cull sow, and if so is she a candidate for being used as a foster nurse sow. As the number of piglets born per litter increases, nurse sows will become increasingly important to improve the productivity of the farrowing room. I have often thought that each sow should be scored on a percentile basis on where she lies in the productivity of the herd for litters per year, piglets born alive, stillborn piglets, piglets weaned and conception rate. Depending on objectives of the farm, the sow’s management can be adjusted to reflect her percentile score in different categories. Just like players on a sports team, some sows in the herd are more suited to playing different roles in the breeding herd and farrowing room. Sows farrowing large numbers of piglets per litter, are managed to take advantage of that strength, with piglets fostered

away as quick as possible to those sows which show the ability to raise large litters. Having a plan for individual sows (players), is an important strategy to provide the desired outcome.

The sow card is still one of the most powerful tools in decision making and management of the farrowing room. Is time to review its role not as a record of past performance, but as a possible predictor of future performance and then designing the management process to play to those predictable strengths? If we do that, then maybe we revise the sow card, with a summary of the most important predictors of future performance for that farm indicated on the front of the Sow Card for all to see. Sows with the highest percentile for each measurement important to that farm are then managed accordingly. n

Brandon Hog and Livestock Show December 11, Brandon, MB

Tony Bergsma, Lorie Pepper, and Arian de Bekker are amoung the team representing Farmers Farmacy® and MS Schippers.

Sean Johnston, Kevin Reimer, Samuel Waititu, and Paul Moser shown here, helped to proudly represent Fortified Nutrition Limited.

Thought for the Day Why Jesus Came Since therefore the children share in flesh and blood, he himself likewise partook of the same things, that through death he might destroy the one who has the power of death, that is, the devil, and deliver all those who through fear of death were subject to lifelong slavery.

– Hebrews 2:14–15 Jesus became man because what was needed was the death of a man who was more than man. The incarnation was God’s locking himself into death row. Christ did not risk death. He embraced it. That is precisely why he came: not to be served, but to serve, and to give his life a ransom for many (Mark 10:45).

– John Piper