Pork Producing
...eriodically, piglets were retained after weaning around eight weeks of age, grew slowly, and were consumed eventually or sold by their original owners. Now pigs may constitute the only type of livestock present on a farm with the system often further specialized by operators concentrating on specific stages of the production sequence. Some farms still keep and mate sows, farrow the liters and raise piglets to market weight. These are called farrow to finish operations. Other farmers engage in weaner production, maintaining breeding herds but selling all their piglets at around ten weeks of age to some other farmer. Those who keep no breeding animals but purchase all of their pigs from weaner producers are called finishing or feeder operators. The pig finishers or feeders then takes care of these purchased animals until they reach market weight. Regardless of the type of operation, all hog farmers must arrange for appropriate facilities and care to look after their stock. In addition to the moral obligation to provide humane care, producers recognize that their livelihood depends on creating an environment that keeps animals healthy and comfortable so they can express their full genetic potential. Careful and conscientious management is essential for ecologically friendly and profitable production so it benefits the pigs, the producers and all of society. Successful production requires animals with a good genotype for traits of economic importance plus the ability to withstand reasonable degrees of stress while maintaining high voluntary feed intake and feed conversion efficiency. Pig farmers may obtain such animals from within their own herd or purchase them from other suppliers. The optimum genotype varies with market demand. Asians and Italians still prefer some fat on their pork but Germans and French want none. Canadians and Americans are somewhere in between these extremes. Healthy pigs without the proper genotype may not always be profitable pigs but unhealthy pigs cannot be profitable regardless of the genotype. Hybrid vigor and vaccinations aid in maintaining good health but provision of a satisfactory environment is even more important. This is particularly true in the nursery area since recently weaned piglets are the most susceptible to disease. People operating growing-finishing units should be very careful where they obtain their stock since it is much easier to keep disease out than it is to eliminate it once an infection gets started. An all-in all-out system is best. Farmers forced into continuous production should isolate all new additions for a period before entrance to the main herd. Great production of great pigs has required great housing and management of these most profitable animals. Pig farmers for generations have had to practice good housing and management of their animals in order to become successful. Pig husbandry follows several patterns. Throughout those regions of the world where subsistence farming predominates, pigs usually roam freely, rooting or scavenging for whatever feed they can find for themselves. Such scavenger pigs must be prevented from foraging in gardens or grain plots during the active growing seasons. Also, some form of constraint is necessary at night if attack by predators or theft might occur. Pigs in the industrialized countries are usually confined throughout most or all of the production cycle. Some form of pasture feeding, often combined with open-fronted shed housing, may be incorporated into the confinement systems whenever climate a...