Brumm Speaks Out

In the past 2 weeks, I’ve had a chance to ‘windshield’ tour much of the northern Iowa and southern Minnesota corn crop. An impressive crop in the making, if we can continue to get timely rains and heat units for crop development.

With general rainfall across the corn belt, and no major heat waves, the markets are optimistic regarding the ability of US producers to once again grow enough grain to meet our increasing demands. However, it won’t be long and many will be thinking about the possibility of an early frost. I thought about this on Friday morning, but from a slightly different perspective.

Currently, the dry-mill ethanol industry has a yield of 2.8-2.9 gallons of ethanol per bushel of corn. In the pork industry, we yield approximately 1 market hog for every 10 bushels of corn.

In the event of an early freeze, it appears that the pork industry has an advantage over the ethanol industry. There is very good data available to suggest that frost damaged corn is very similar to normal corn when used in swine grow-finish diets on a weight basis, at least until test weight is something below 50 pounds per bushel. However, what about the ethanol industry – what is the value of frost damaged corn to their process?

The ethanol industry harvests ethanol produced from the fermentation of the starch in the corn kernel. When corn is damaged by an early freeze, there is less starch in the kernel. This suggests that if there is an early freeze and corn development is arrested short of ‘black-layer’, quality corn for the ethanol process will be at a premium. Stated another way, frost damaged corn will most likely be severely discounted by the ethanol plants.

While no one wants to see or experience an early freeze, the pork industry is in a better position to use the result of such an event. One more reason pork production is important to rural communities.

Hog barns don’t come with owner’s manuals! Many of the readers of this blog have seen me present on this topic at various producer meetings this past year. In the past 2 weeks I’ve worked with several clients on a variety of facility related issues that have emphasized some of the items I have on my list of owner’s manual chapters.

Yesterday I was at a new wean-finish site with the new contract grower, several of his neighbors who have contract wean-finish barns, the electrician for these barns, production company field supervisors, etc. One of the topics that arose is – what parts should the new grower plan on having on-hand for the fans, feed augers, curtain machines, etc. at the site.

The electrician raised some very good points in our discussion – the biggest one being most facility owners don’t have any type of listing of the specific equipment installed in their facilities. This adds to the cost of the repair bills when the electrician is called. In many cases, if the facility owner could supply the electrician (or other service personnel) with specific equipment lists, some service calls could be eliminated as the service person could trouble shoot the problem with the owner in a telephone call, or at least come to the site with the correct repair parts.

I visit 50-80 different pig production sites in any given year, and I can’t recall a site where the owner/employee could furnish me with a listing of fan model numbers, etc. I’ve spent countless hours looking at worn fan faceplates trying to make out model numbers, etc. when I’m trying to figure out ventilation problems. With controllers, many times I have no idea of how they are linked to slave units, or with some brands of controllers, which stage of ventilation is wired into what ventilation circuit.

This electricians recommendation (and it’s a good recommendation) is that every swine facility should have an as-installed equipment list. For fans – make, model, size, shaft diameter, etc. For feed augers, replacement motor details. For ventilation controllers – brand and model. And the list can go on and on, but you get the idea.

When you buy an automobile or pickup, it comes with a VIN. Using that VIN code, any mechanic can determine what the original equipment in the vehicle was, and get some idea of where to start on any type of repair process.

Wouldn’t it be nice if hog barns came with VIN’s? An as-installed equipment list is the next best thing.

Just returned from the local barbershop. While there, visited with a local heating contractor about energy costs. He had just booked his propane for this winter at $2.30/gal, up considerably from last summer’s booking.

I’ve also heard of grain farmers trying to decide if they should book diesel fuel for their fall harvest operations this summer. Some are advising to do the bookings now in anticipation of further price increases, while others are suggesting the ‘bubble’ may burst on energy futures and fuel will be cheaper this fall. As this suggests, ‘cheap’ is in the eyes of the beholder.

The cost of energy for swine production units will be up considerably this next winter regardless of which scenario you want to plan for. As a point of reference, fuel and oil expense for the past 4 years for cooperators in the Minnesota Farm Business Association (www.finbin.umn.edu) have averaged $1.43/pig for wean-finish, $0.71/pig for feeder pig finishing and $0.49/pig for breed to wean. Note that this fuel and oil includes not only propane, but also any fuel use by tractors, generators, pickups, etc. that is charged to the hog enterprise.

Utility expense (generally electricity and telephone) were $1.04/pig for wean-finish, $0.62 for feeder pig finishing and $1.03/pig for breed to wean.

These expenses seem minor compared to the explosion in feed ingredient prices, but a 25-40% increase in these costs is still a shock to many. I’ve been getting a number of calls from clients to do ‘energy audits’ at their production sites. In general, during these ‘audits’ I focus on issues associated with the ventilation system, including set points, bandwidths, furnace sizing, inlet adjustment, etc.

One question commonly asked regards insulation. In southern Minnesota and northern Iowa, many producers have asked about the value of a ‘warm-wall’ wean-finish versus a ‘cold-wall’ facility as it relates to energy savings. A ‘warm-wall’ facility is usually a tunnel ventilated unit that does not use emergency drop-curtains on the side walls. Instead, the walls are fully insulated, often to a R-19 value. This is in contrast to ‘cold-wall’ facilities that have un-insulated stem walls with a 3’ emergency drop curtain, which translates into an effective R-3 value for the side wall.

When I model heat production by a 25 pound pig in these units and add in heat loss from the building shell and heat loss from the ventilation system, the most striking item is the impact of incorrect ventilation management on heat loss. The model I use predicts the balance point temperature of a facility, that is, the temperature of the incoming air that is at balance with the heat loss from the building shell and ventilation system.

A typical 1200 head wean-finish facility in the upper Midwest has 2 24” variable speed pit fans as the stage 1 ventilation. If we assume that each 24” fan has a rated capacity of 6000 cfm, 2 fans operating at full speed equates to 12,000 cfm or 10 cfm/pig. The recommended ventilation rate for moisture control for 25 pound pigs is 2 cfm/pig. Even if the stage 1 ventilation controller can reduce fan output to 50% (notice I didn’t say slow the fans to 50% speed or 50% setting on the controller), this is still 5 cfm per pig with 2 fans operating and the room housing 1200 pigs.

At this setting, the estimated balance point is 43 F for the cold-wall barn and 45 F for the warm wall barn – not much difference, suggesting that a large amount of the heat loss is associated with the ventilation system. If one of the 24” fans is turned off so the ventilation system provides 2.5 cfm/pig, the balance temperature for the cold-wall facility drops to 22 F while it drops to 10 F for the warm-wall facility. Now there is clear value to the insulated ‘warm-wall’.

The above example demonstrates the importance of thoroughly understanding your ventilation controller and matching your ventilation system to the number and size of pigs in the facility. If you don’t get the ventilation right this fall, plan on buying a lot of $2.30/gal propane.

One of the items that has always peaked my interest is the discussion of ‘who is our market’. I think everyone agrees that the ultimate market for the pork we produce is the consumer. However, how this consumer’s desires and biases get transferred into a willingness to buy our product gets very fuzzy.

In May, the Food Marketing Institute which is the industry group that represents grocery stores, etc., released its annual survey of where people purchase their groceries. In 2007, Wal-Mart and Kroger claimed fully 33% of all US consumer grocery dollars. Think about this. Two firms now have 1/3 of all the market share for the US food purchases for eat at home meals.

Another way to think about the large market share these 2 firms represent is in the area of animal welfare. We have all witnessed the power of McDonalds to shape the animal welfare debate as it seeks out product suppliers who meet their evolving animal welfare dictums. In the future, I think these types of dictums will also be evident from the retail chains. Wal-Mart has already demonstrated its retail clout in such areas as RFID tracking of inventory, etc. It will only be a matter of time before both Wal-Mart and Kroger will be expecting suppliers of products to meet their consumer demands for issues that go beyond price, food safety and convenience.

In the June 30 issue of Feedstuffs was a short item stating that on September 1, a new law in Switzerland will require dog owners to take lessons on how to properly walk their dog. The fishing industry will be required to have training on how to catch fish in a ‘compassionate manner’. Owners of goldfish, guinea pigs, horses, and other ‘social’ animals could be cited for animal abuse if their animals do not cohabit or have contact with others of their kind.

I’m not suggesting that Wal-Mart or Kroger will be enacting buying policies that reflect the upcoming Swiss regulations. However, the fact that the Swiss have enacted such legislation supports the notion that the public in general has limited life experiences with any animal other than the family pet. And according to the Swiss, even this must be regulated to be certain that the animal is cared for in a manner befitting its ‘natural state’.

The Swiss legislation points out the public pressure that is increasing on retailers such as Wal-Mart and Kroger for animal welfare policies that may or may not be based on science. It highlights that our role as pork producers now includes a new role as educators of consumers.

Minnesota has a population of just over 5 million citizens. I think every one of us has relatives and friends who know little about our production methods, our concern for the health and welfare of the animals under our care and our interest in providing a safe and wholesome product for their use. If we don’t take the time to tell a friend or relative our story, who will? It is up to us to be pro-active with our story, because if we rely on others, the end result may be legislation such as the Swiss experience that will require training on how to ‘humanely’ raise pigs, with the definition of ‘humane’ being open to interpretation.