Crystal Levesque South Dakota State University

Publish Date: June 1, 2023

Today’s swine industry is more diverse than ever before. As it becomes more difficult to find a local workforce willing and able to work on American hog farms, many producers rely heavily on foreign-born labor, making up approximately 68% of farm personnel across the United States. Immigration is now a cornerstone of pork production, and a basic understanding of the process and regulations are vital for a successful business. This article is meant to introduce the multi-faceted topic of immigration; however, it should not be considered legal advice.

Publish Date: January 2, 2023

An effective swine marketing strategy can help maximize facility utilization and profits for the producer. Producers may choose to market animals on a fixed time or fixed weight basis. Considerations in the decision include the flow of pigs into a facility, the production goals such as final body weight and feed efficiency, the variability of the weights of animals in the facility, the availability of transportation for hogs from the facility, and shackle space at the packing plant. Producers in the U.S. typically market hogs over multiple events toward the end of the finisher period to reduce carcass weight variability. However, this depends on the accuracy of trained individuals sorting hogs and/or the use of automatic sorting technology such as sorting scales or machine learning.