Looking for a Job, Finding the Right Employee

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A Look at the Employment in the United States Swine Production Industry

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Employee Rosters Rise; Wages Continue to Climb

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Work Environment, Job Satisfaction, Top Employees Work Interests

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Economic Comparison of Alternatives to Sulfamethazine Use in Pork Production

Sulfamethazinehas been widely used in the production of meat animals. It is effective as a product for treatment as well as prevention of animal disease leading to improved production efficiencies and lower cost meat and meat products. This was true especially in pork production. However, in recent years, use ofsulfamethazine in meat animal production has received a renewed focus. Thisstudy provides an economic analysis ofselected alternatives to the use of sulfamethazine in pork production. Alternatives evaluated were sulfathiazole, oxytetracycline, chlortetracycline, tylosin and lincomycin. Sulfathiazole isshown to be the most cost effective alternative. Production efficiency, production costs, and pork priceswere only slightly impacted when sulfathiazole was substituted for sulfamethazine. Sulfathiazole is followed by lincomycin, then the tetracyclines, and tylosi

An Analysis of the Cost of Producing Pork in Hoop Structures and Confinement during the Summer

This research compares pork production in two types of production facilities. Information for the fourth group of pigs, which was fed from June 1999 to October 1999 at the Rhodes Research and Demonstration Farm, is provided. Results will be evaluated using the actual production efficiency numbers and the average or typical costs for feeder pigs, feed, etc., along with average market hog prices. This allows for comparison of expected costs and returns for normal input cost and hog price conditions

The Impact of PRRS on the Pig Cost of Production

Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome (PRRS) has had a significant impact on the profitability of swine production. As a means to quantify the financial impact of PRRS to the U.S. swine industry, a study was conducted. This study utilized case studies and a Delphi survey to identify the various impacts PRRS has on farms. Results suggest that impacts to individual farms vary greatly but aggregated data for approximately 100 million market swine being sold each year in the U.S., estimates PRRS adds somewhere between $5.60 and$7.62 to the cost per head sold

The Economics of Finishing Hogs in Hoop Structures and Confinement; Financial Comparison

From June 30, 1998 to Feb 21, 2001, a study to compare swine production facility types was conducted at the Iowa State University Rhodes Research and Demonstration. The two types of pork grow-finish production facilities compared in this study were hoop and total confinement. This report evaluates financial measurements from six groups of hogs; three groups fed in during the winter and three groups fed during the summer. This financial examination provides mixed results. The hoop facilities have superior return on investment, internal rate of return, modified internal rate of return, and a shorter pay back period. These advantages can be attributed largely to the hoops’ smaller initial investment. However, the confinement facility has the advantage of a longer service life as well as higher net profit per year per pig space. This gives the confinement system an advantage of a higher net present value. Hoop operations will need to invest in more pig spaces to generate the same net present value. The report goes on to examine the sensitivity of the financial measures to changes in input and output values such as carcass prices, ration cost, and cost of capital. The result is that due to its lower investment per pig space, shorter service life, and lower net profit per year the hoop facilities are more sensitive to changes in hog prices, ration costs, facility costs, and net profit per head. However, the confinement facility is more sensitive to changes in the cost of capital due to its longer service life and higher initial investment level. This makes the question of which system is a better financial investment dependent on several issues. The availability of initial capital, operating capital, land for manure application, labor available, and pig flow are all important in order to make a decision on which investment is best. Operators must also consider the cost of capital, value of alternative uses for the capital, market conditions, risk aversion level, as well as intrinsic values of the alternatives when deciding on which pig finishing option to select