Paper #3 “Swine Nutrition and Management Systems that Alter Productivity and Carcass Traits”

“Swine Nutrition and Management Systems that Alter Productivity and Carcass Traits”

                Dr. Mike Tokach spoke about a topic I found very interesting due to my summer internship at Audubon-Manning Veterinary Clinic in swine production. The swine industry has pushed for higher productivity, larger litter sizes, and the use of dried, distillers grains (DDGS) and ractopamine. Dr. Tokach spoke about how these expansions have also caused negative impacts on the pork industry.

                Since 1930 the United States of America has decreased its number of sows by more than 40% while increasing production by 230%. In 2010, sows were producing 20 piglets per year, which is up 3 pigs per year from ten years ago, and averaging 10.1 pigs per weaning in 2011. Dr. Tokach explained that as we increased the number of pigs weaned per litter, with an increase in the number of pigs per sow, there was an increase in pre-wean mortality. Dr. Tokach’s question was “How does the number of pigs weaned per litter effect meat quality?” I thought Dr. Tokach did an excellent job answering the question he posed.

An increase in litter size causes a more variable birth weight. Within the birth weight, the smallest pigs are effected, but not the larger pigs. Smaller birth weight piglets have larger myofibers which leads to an increase in longissimus dorsi drip loss. Although litter size is a cause of pork quality decrease, DDGS and Ractopamine do not help the situation either.

                DDGS are a result of more ethanol production. As an increasing amount of corn is used for ethanol production, there are more bi-products that need to be used. DDGS are often cheaper than regular feed, but have an increase in unsaturated fats increasing the fiber within a pigs diet. DDGS and the fiber increase cause softer fat composition than that compared to pigs fed corn or soy diets. Introduction of DDGS to the pork industry  has brought about a new challenge to capture quality within our pork production practices.

                Ractopamine is also another cause of decreased pork quality. Although there is an increase in growth rate, feed efficiency, lean deposits, dressing percent, and loin muscle area, the additive results in a decrease in tenderness and color. This additive also alters heart rate, makes pigs difficult to handle, and increases pigs their susceptibility to stress.

                Although the facility I am working at this summer does not feed DDGS or use ractopamine, we do have many controversial conversations about litter size. This speech really helped me better understand how pork production is increasing in size, pork quality is looming behind. It was nice to be able to take this new information back to my swine farm and explain to them what I had learned.