Disease the second largest cost to producers

By Rob Hannam, CEO

Disease is the second largest cost in livestock production, after feed. While producers may not think of disease when they calculate cost of production, it shouldn’t be underestimated.

Anthony Novero, Chief Technology Officer of Farm Health Guardian, says that we vastly underestimate how much disease costs. Significant losses due to mortality, depopulation and repopulation, and additional costs of cleaning and disinfection result in millions of dollars of lost revenue for large sow units. If a 5,000-sow unit is lost to PRRS for example, it can mean a loss several million dollars in the profitability of a whole system.

“When disease first hits and there are a few mortality losses, we fight it, all while we’re losing productivity. Then we decide to depopulate while continuing to lose revenue. There are also the costs of barn cleaning and disinfection, then repopulating and breeding and finally waiting for farrowing. During all this downtime there is a reduction in output.”

The costs of disease are not just financial but emotional too. Novero emphasizes, “No one wants to work around sick pigs. When you have thousands of animals in a barn, there are going to be losses. When disease hits it becomes emotionally draining, not just physically demanding.”

Dr. John Patience from the Iowa State University was involved in a study comparing the economics of pig production under different health conditions. The case study monitored pigs of different health status across three 1,000 head barns. The low, medium and high health challenges were maintained throughout the course of the experiment. All three barns tested positive for PRRS, and the medium and high health challenge barns also tested positive for influenza A virus.

Performance, mortality, growth and economics were compared and scaled up to a 2,400 head barn. Pigs weighed 29 lb at the start of the trial and were grown to market weight at 285 lb. Mortality was 3.3% in the low health challenged barn, versus 19.9% for the high health challenged pigs. Days to market was 133 days for the low health challenged pigs, compared to 148 days to market for the high health challenged pigs, a full two weeks extra.

Looking at revenue per pig, it was $13.50 for the low health challenged barn, versus a loss of $5.42 for the high health challenged barn. That’s a $19.25 per pig difference.

Using economics of 1999, the total revenue of the low health challenged barn to a fixed weight of 285 lbs per pig was $306,000. For the high health challenged barn, it was $246,000, a difference of $60,000. Looking at revenue per pig, it was $13.50 for the low health challenged barn, versus a loss of $5.42 for the high health challenged barn. That’s a $19.25 per pig difference.

Gross revenue for a fixed timeframe (133 days to market) rather than a fixed weight, was $307,000 for the low health challenged barn vs $229,000 for the high health challenged barn. This equates to a loss of $20.75 per pig.

“People are in this to take care of animals and make a bit of money. Working around sick pigs makes the job a lot worse for employees and employers, and people start losing morale,” says Novero. “That’s what’s behind Farm Health Guardian and everything that we do.”