When we think about the most valuable pigs on a farm, it’s easy to focus on the top performers – the pigs that reach slaughter weight quickly with excellent feed conversion.
But from a veterinary and production perspective, the most expensive pig on your farm is the exact opposite. It’s the pig that doesn’t grow.
I see these pigs frequently. They’re the ones that fall behind after weaning, remain notably smaller than their pen mates and gradually become the ‘tail enders’ of the batch.
At first glance they may not seem like a major issue, but these pigs can quietly cost you far more than you realise.
A slow-growing pig doesn’t just take longer to reach finishing weight – it consumes feed, labour and housing space for much longer than planned. It fills pens, disrupts normal pig flow and may lead to mixing of pigs, which comes with its own disease risks.
They may also require extra – sometimes repeated – treatments in an attempt to improve performance. Multiply that by several pigs per batch and the cost very quickly adds up.
Disproportionately costly
On finishing units, a relatively small number of pigs may fall into this category, but they can account for a disproportionate share of the production costs. In many cases, the feed conversion ratio of these pigs is significantly worse than the rest of the group, meaning that every kilogram of weight gain costs more.
There is rarely a single cause of poor-performing pigs. Instead, a combination of early-life challenges, disease pressure and management factors usually play a role.
Pigs that struggle to adapt to solid feed after weaning, with erratic intakes, will be predisposed to post-weaning diarrhoea. If this occurs, they will frequently fall behind in terms of weight for age.
At Emerald, we are focusing on early post-weaning management and research on non-antibiotic products to support enteric health – this gets the piglet off to a good start, as well as reducing antimicrobial use.
Manage infection
Infections can also play a role, most notably porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome and flu, which are well known for causing uneven growth and often predispose the pigs to secondary infections such as Glassers disease.
Other primary pathogens in the finishing stages such as Mycoplasma hyopneumoniae, the causative organism of enzootic pneumonia, and Lawsonia intracellularis, the causative organism of ileitis, must also be well controlled with robust vaccination programmes.
The presentation of these diseases is often not dramatic, but daily liveweight gains are undoubtedly reduced and growth variation within a batch can become more obvious.
Prevention is key
Management factors also play an important role – feed and water access must be good, feed must be palatable and water must be clean, while ventilation, temperature and stocking rates also need to be adequate.
The best strategy for reducing the numbers of slow-growing pigs is prevention. Focus should begin right from the start. Ensuring piglets have adequate colostrum and encouraging feed intakes both before and after weaning while maintaining good health is essential.
The weaning transition deserves particular attention, and your nutritionist is a key player at this stage. Any disease challenges should be communicated to your vet so that appropriate diagnostics can be conducted and preventative measures can be put in place, which may involve a vaccination schedule review or management tweaks.
Observation remains one of the most valuable tools on a pig farm. Identifying smaller pigs early and targeting support – such as the use of TLC pens – can often help pigs recover before the gap becomes too large.
Paying close attention to growth variation and making small changes can often lead to significant improvements in overall performance.
Because the most expensive pig on your farm is the one that takes the longest to finish.