Published on Feb. 7, 2019
New Pork Facility Feeds the Need for Progress
While not every area of pork production is equally important, feeding your animals is right up there. Producers can sometimes skimp on certain aspects, but providing high quality, nutritious feed to their pigs is critical to the bottom line. Unfortunately, high feed costs can quickly eat away at profits. Keeping those costs to a minimum without sacrificing production is a prime focus at the new Bon Accord nucleus facility in Ituna, Saskatchewan, Canada.
This ultra modern facility boasts all the latest technology and allows Hypor to double its dam line population in Canada. Much of that technology is aimed at paving the way for progress on the feed front.
From a feeding perspective, production team members will be able to gather a considerable amount of data about feed intake, feeding behavior, conversion and how the animal grows.
In addition to traditional methods of gathering information, we are exploring other technologies to boost efficiency and enable us to capture data points in places we never could before
For example, the facility will record lactation feed intake at farrowing and gestation feed intake by parity. There is also the ability to feed multiple rations at different stages with the option of blending. Thanks to the latest in automation, data may be collected in real time, and team members can tightly control and monitor feed intake, feeding behavior, frequency and the weight of the sow in gestation.
If it’s true that “knowledge is power”, this centre and its equipment are a powerful ally in Hypor’s pursuit of progress.
“Our Bon Accord barn allows us to have a deeper understanding of how to most efficiently feed our animals. Feed efficiency and growth are large drivers of our genetic program, and this enterprise helps us improve efficiency.”
Given the impact of feed costs on your business, the importance of the new barn in terms of Total System Profitability is clear. Feed accounts for 70 – 80 per cent of the costs of getting pigs to market, so maximizing how efficiently they utilize that feed, and knowing how to feed the right diet to the right pig at the right point in time, goes a long way to enhancing producer profit.
In both the short and long term, Bon Accord is poised to have a significant effect on the local community and the industry as a whole.
“People who live in the area are excited about the employment opportunities that will flow from this project. From an industry perspective, it’s encouraging to see investment in the future of the Canadian swine industry, especially in western Canada. We haven’t seen a lot of barns built lately in the region, but this one is a key indicator of a promising future.”
It’s also a key piece of the puzzle when it comes to giving Hypor and its customers a competitive edge. To stand among the main players on the global genetic stage, having nutrition and feeding guides for your stock is a must. Knowing how to make the most of an animal’s potential at the customer level is a critical success factor for any genetics company going forward.
“The possibilities created by the Bon Accord project are intriguing. When you have so much space and access to the latest and greatest technology, we can’t even grasp the full potential at this point, but we know it opens a lot of doors for us.”
Since success for a company means success for its clients, a lot of those open doors should lead to greater opportunity for Hypor clients as well.