Finishing
Practical Advice » Producer Kt » Finishing »
Sow productivity, in terms of numbers born alive or piglets reared per year, has tended to dominate our thinking over benchmarking and comparing performance between different farms and indeed between competitive pig producing countries. This is understandable as it is easier to count piglets than generate accurate growth and feed conversion results for pigs beyond the weaning stage and into finishing. However the finishing pig, that is from around 30 kg to slaughter at 100 kg, is the single biggest consumer of feed resource, accounting for more than 50% of the total pig feed volume and over 55% of the total pig feed budget. Feed represents around 60% of the total cost of production, therefore absolute feed cost, feed conversion efficiency and throughput can make the difference between financial loss and profitability.
The finishing pig enterprise holds the greatest potential for generating the largest financial return from pig production and every effort must be taken to maximise that return.