Purchasing Low-cost feeds and managing feed waste all reduce feed costs

A swine nutritionist with Western Ag Supply says by purchasing low-cost opportunity feed ingredients, feeding according to nutritional requirements and managing feed wastage pork producers can reduce their feed costs and improve their profitability

“How to Save Money on Your Hog Operations” is the focus of the second webinar in the Saskatchewan Pork Development Board’s 2023 spring seminar series.

Dr. Dan Sotto, a swine nutritionist with Western Ag Supply, says with feed costs making up 65-70 percent of a typical farm’s budget there’s a growing need to make every dollar count.

 “Buying the right ingredients and having flexibility on ingredient use and ability to use opportunity ingredients may reduce feed costs”

“In order for producers to become more profitable, we need to manage input costs. Because feed constitutes up to 70 percent of variable costs, any strategy to reduce feed costs and improve feed efficiency can reduce feed costs per pig and improve profitability.

“We have identified some strategies to reduce feed costs and feed costs per pig. These include ingredient selection and buying the right ingredients and having flexibility on ingredient use and ability to use opportunity ingredients may reduce feed costs.

“Reducing particle size may improve feed conversion, consequently reducing feed costs per pig.
Feeding gestation sows according to body condition may also reduce feed costs with additional benefits of improvement in performance.

“We need to have a good estimate of how much feed we are giving the sows to avoid over or underfeeding.

“Reducing feed wastage in any department in your operation will result in feed cost savings.”

The “How to Save Money on Your Hog Operations” webinar can be accessed through the Sask Pork or Farmscape web sites.

Farmscape is produced on behalf of North America’s pork producers