Little Things Done Right Add Up

The Manager of Knowledge Transfer with the Prairie Swine Centre says, when it comes to management, little things done right add up.Taking Care of Basics, Measuring on-farm best management practices was among the topics discussed as part of Saskatchewan Pork Industry Symposium 2024 in Saskatoon.

Ken Engele, the Manager of Knowledge Transfer with the Prairie Swine Centre, says two surveys of pork producers conducted by Prairie Swine Center and CDQP in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc, looked at all phases of production.

Quote-Ken Engele-Prairie Swine Centre:

There are probably 15 different sectors that we looked at so it was an all-encompassing project that we tried to take a look at.Some of the main features or outcomes that we found is, making sure you are adjusting nipple drinkers and was water use management is one important driving factor throughout it.Feed always has been, always will be the single biggest item in the cost of production so feeder design, feeder management, feeder adjustment, that sort of thing is consistently important.

It's the day-to-day things that you're doing on farm that on an individual basis don't seem that exciting.You don't necessarily see the importance of it but it's like the example I provided.There's lots of singles, few home runs.You do everything right all the time and there is a cumulative effect that is bigger than what you think it is, so one plus one is no longer two, it's three.

You get the added benefit of doing all those little things right all the time, the cumulative effect is far greater than anything on its own individual basis.
Then there's enrichment.Enrichment is one of those things that there's lots of added benefits.There are other presentations at symposium that have shown there's a positive economic return to enrichment as well so there's a positive economic return plus the welfare of the animal is improved as well.

Engele says producers know what best management practices are but things can get lost in day-to-day activities as the