Information is Power. When we feel bad and go to the doctor, he asks us various questions to find out our symptoms and based on this, define the possible cause and treatment. That is, it is reported. Through the production records, the Veterinarian identifies that the farm “hurts”. This farm hurts fertility, this one hurts those born, that one mortality, etc. With this, a control strategy is implemented and subsequently we use the information to evaluate the response to the implemented measures. This is the enormous value of management programs like PigCHAMP®. It helps us identify areas of opportunity and measure the response of corrective actions.
The information must then meet two basic requirements. Be truthful and timely. It is essential that farm personnel are fully aware of these two aspects. In most cases, having females that are not in heat, low calving rate or lactation mortality is not the fault of the worker. For example, we have experience with farms where there is strong pressure or incentives to reduce lactation mortality. If the worker cannot meet the stated objective, the easiest way is to alter live-born piglets. Sometimes they write them down as stillbirths (even though they have not died) and it makes us think of some infectious, nutritional or management problem. At other times they are simply not listed and we suspect poor genetic integrity. All this leads us to propose inadequate solutions. Therefore, if the captured information is not reliable or sufficient, all the work will be affected. Imagine that they arrive with the doctor and tell him that they feel bad, without further information. The doctor will not have enough information to address the problem. Likewise, if the information captured in the production records is not sufficient or accurate, it will give us a false report and therefore, our intervention will not be effective. PigCHAMP® is a reliable tool that allows us to review different areas of the farm and reach valuable conclusions. Communication with the operators is essential so that they are involved in the results and know in detail the importance of their intervention and responsibility.
There is only one thing worse than not having accurate information and on farm time. And it is not to analyze the information. All the effort of capture, time and investment in the management program will not be of any use if the reports are not periodically reviewed by those responsible for the purpose of taking action in the areas of opportunity. It is essential that executive results analysis meetings are held at least once a week, and based on this, prepare an action plan.
Finally, production records tell us what happened on the farm. Wanting to operate a farm based solely on performance reports is comparable to driving a vehicle by looking only at the rearview mirror. We must be proactive and look ahead to the needs of the pork and pork production business. There are many farms that are already exceeding a productivity of 30 weaned female year, 4000 kgs per female per year with a feed conversion of less than 2.5. The obligatory question is, how are your results? What are you doing to improve them?