Small-scale swine production
Planning for emergencies and biosecurity
Biosecurity for alternative pig farms —Tips and guidelines for smaller scale pig producers using alternative production systems. View videos on:
- Swine biosecurity basics
- All-in-all-out management system
- Tips for hoop houses and open areas
- Avoid contamination from clothing and footwear
Operations Contingency Plan for Swine Producers
- Download the fillable PDF to outline essential livestock care if you or your managers experience illness, injury, or another emergency when you may need outside people to provide care.
- This contingency plan covers essential care only; it is not a comprehensive care plan. Use the form to complete your farm’s Operations Contingency Plan.
This list includes essential items to have on hand for regular health care of pigs or emergencies. Get instructions from your veterinarian if you do not know how to properly use the items below.
Consider attending a Pork Quality Assurance (PQA) training to improve pig wellbeing.
Basics
- Veterinarian’s phone number.
- Disposable gloves for handling dirty, sick, and dead pigs.
- Disposable booties to cover your barn-specific footwear when entering pens or rooms with dirty, sick, and dead pigs.
- Clean towels or paper towels and rags for handling piglets.
- Stainless steel bucket to carry warm water and other supplies.
- Electrolytes and vitamins to support hydration during heat or transportation stress or disease.
- Scale or weight tape measure to monitor weight gain and maintenance.
- Thermometer. The average body temperature of a pig is 101.5-102.5 degrees F.
- Sorting boards, a snare, and a designated area for handling and inspecting pigs.
- Sick pen or designated area to prevent aggression from healthy pigs toward sick pigs.
- Ear notchers for litter and pig identification.
- Ear tags for pig identification.
- Dewormer to prevent parasite infection, especially roundworms.
- Needles and syringes for medication administration. 5/8 or 1/2 inch 18 gauge for younger pigs and 1 or 1.5 inch, 16-gauge needles for finisher and adult pigs. 6 cc syringes and 12 cc syringes.
- Isopropyl alcohol to clean needles and other tools.
- Sterile surgical blades and handles or sterile scalpels for lancing abscesses and castration.
- Antimicrobial wound spray.
- Marking spray or chalk to identify treated pigs.
- Broad-spectrum antibiotic, dependent on disease, pig weight and farm size.**
Farrowing care
- Long plastic gloves (Obstetrical (OB) sleeves) to examine the sow and assist farrowing.
- Disinfectant: Use mild soap and warm water or a suitable iodine preparation to wash the plastic gloves and sow’s vulva.
- Veterinary OB lubricant for assisting farrowing.
- OB snare or forceps to assist with difficult births. Be sure to talk with your veterinarian about the proper situations and ways to use these items.
- Iodine for the navel cord.
- Oxytocin for stimulating uterine contractions only after the cervix is fully dilated.**
- Iron supplement for piglets. Consult with your veterinarian.
- Colostrum and milk replacer for orphaned piglets or a lack of milk production from the sow.
- Piglet-sized nipple and bottle for feeding milk replacer.
- Stomach tube feeder for feeding colostrum or milk replacer if piglet does not take the bottle.
**These items require prescriptions from your Veterinarian of Record who holds your veterinary client-patient relationship (VCPR).
Organic
Standards for organic livestock and poultry — The United States Department of Agriculture published new organic livestock and poultry production standards. The goal of clearer standards is to increase consistency in animal welfare practices.
Improving health of organic pigs
The most common health problems observed on organic pig farms include diarrhea (scours), respiratory issues (coughing and breathing difficulty) and parasites.
Once infected by parasites, eradication is difficult. So, prevention is the key to parasite control.
Early detection of sick pigs in organic production systems
Changes in behavior, appearance and temperament of pigs are early signs of sickness, but are often subtle and easily overlooked.
Early detection of sick pigs is crucial to health management of organic pigs.
Organic pig inventory at the end of 2016 was 14,700 head, with a peak inventory of 19,800 during the year. About eighteen thousand (17,818) organic pigs were sold across the country for the year. Organic pig sales totaled $6.9 million, accounting for 0.6 percent of total organic animal (livestock and poultry) sales. There were 151 certified organic pig farms across the country in 2016, out of 14,217 certified organic farms nationwide.
Compared to the United States, European Union countries have committed more land to certified organic agricultural production. By 2011, 5.4 percent (26 million acres) of farmland in Europe was managed organically according to Fruh, et al, and organic pig production accounted for 0.5 percent of total pig production in Europe in 2011. Denmark had the largest increase in its organic sow herd of any European country from 2006 to 2011, a 93 percent jump in sow inventory, from 3,333 to 6,421 sows.
Certified organic commodity sales in USA in 2016
| Certified organic commodities | Value of organic commodities sold | Percent of total value of organic commodities sold |
|---|---|---|
| Total in USA | 7.6 billion | 100 |
| Crops (including vegetables, fruits and field crops) | 4.2 billion | 56 |
| Milk | 1.4 billion | 18 |
| Eggs | 816 million | 11 |
| Poultry | 915 million | 12 |
| Livestock | 241 million | 3 |
Sources
USDA. 2017. Certified Organic Survey 2016 Summary. Accessed on Feb. 16, 2018.
Statista. 2017. Total number of hogs and pigs in the U.S. from 2000 to 2017. Accessed on Feb 16, 2018.
Day, C. 2016. 2016 pork production: what recent USDA reports reveal. National Hog Farmer, March 25, 2016. Accessed on Feb. 16, 2018.
Fruh, B., D. Bochicchio, S. Edwards, L. Hegelund, C. Leeb, A. Sundrum, S. Werne, S. Wiberg, and A. Prunier. 2013. Description of organic pig production in Europe. Org. Agr. DOI 10.1007/s13165-013-0056-9.
This work is supported by Organic Agricultural Research and Extension Initiative (Grant# 2017-51300-26817) from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture.
Designing feeding programs for natural and organic pork production
- The National Organic Program (NOP) provides guidelines for your ingredients, production protocols and other practices to qualify for organic certification.
- Keep records of your livestock and feeding operations to prove your animals have been raised according to certified practices.
- There are many different diets you can use in natural or organic pork production.