The Price of Genetic Progress During Past Decade As PIC South Africa celebrates 40 years since its establishment with Soetvelde Farms in 1986, and 10 years under ALZU’s leadership across Africa, the focus turns naturally to impact. Beyond the milestones lies a more important question: what has this past decade of genetic progress been worth?…
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Early Pig Care in Detail A Proper Environment: Room Temperature and Comfort Zone As pork producers are aware, every weaned pig must thrive to maximize profitability.In previous Pig Improvers, we have reviewed the importance of good early pig care in achieving optimal lifetime performance. Early pig care matters. Proper early pig care can lead to…
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Brushing Up on Early Pig Care Making Sure Every Weaned Pig Thrives To maximize the profitability of a pork operation, we must optimize the health and performance of every weaned pig.A good start is critical for optimal lifetime performance. Good Early Pig Care means: minimizing stress at reception minimizing health challenges to the pigs assuring…
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Colostrum Management Makes the Difference: For More Piglets and For Better Piglets The importance of colostrum for the health of piglets is unquestioned. Colostrum provides energy and hydration to maintain vital bodily functions. It also provides protection against pathogens through local immunity (digestive) and systemic immunity. Pre-weaning mortality (PWM) continues to be one of the…
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Avoid These Common Biosecurity Mistakes Health risks are always looking for a way into the barn. They are relentless, and your biosecurity practices need to be relentless too. Overlooking just one biosecurity protocol could lead to lost productivity and profit. The PIC Health Assurance team has been in the field, assisting farm teams to improve…
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Are You Prepared? Will you get a perfect score in this quick quiz? We challenge you in this issue of the Pig Improver to see if you are already taking the biosecurity action items you should be taking, or if you will learn something new about protecting both your individual operation and the industry as…
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More Important Than Ever As African swine fever (ASF) continues its deadly spread across Asia and Europe, discussions on biosecurity are laced with increased urgency. But even without a foreign animal disease, there are plenty of domestic health challenges that underpin the need for sound biosecurity practices on every farm. “Biosecurity, by simple definition, is…
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