Mr. Sowell has 520 sows with a group farrowing every 2 weeks. His farrowing sow stays in the farrowing unit 4 weeks. He has a farrowing building large enough to take care of his sows’ expected need with at least four extra farrowing units. The farrowing units are 5 feet by 8 feet down each side of the building with 2 feet between the units and the outside wall. There is a 4-foot walk down the center and across the end. There is an even number of units in the building. The sows average 2.2 litters a year with an average of 8.5 pigs. Mr. Sowell mixed a ton of a 16 percent CP feed ration for one-half of his sows. The ration consisted of corn with 8.4 percent CP at $6.25 per bushel, 120 pounds of 25 percent CP supplement A at $15.10 per 50 pounds, 50 pounds of supplement B at $18 per 50

Question

pounds, and 48 percent CP soybean meal at $490 per ton. He fed these sows at a rate of 5.8 pounds per day per sow. From birth to 60-pound feeder pigs, he had a 1.75 percent loss. In 125 days, he fed 575 pounds of feed per feeder. After 125 days they are finishers averaging 260 pounds per hog. On the day he sold one group (pigs born in any 2-week period) of finishers, the price dropped $0.05 per cwt.

a. What was the area needed for the farrowing house?
b. How many newborn pigs did he average every 2 weeks?
c. How much did it cost to feed one-half of the sows per month?
(Note: 1 mo = 30 days.)
d. What was the feed gain ratio for the feeders to finishers?
e. How many feeders did he have per year?
f. How many tons of feed were fed the feeders to finishers per year?
g. How much did he lose by not selling the day before the price
dropped?

Answer 1

a. 5,712 ft2
b. 374 pigs/2 week
c. $7,397.42
d. 2.9:1
e. 9,554 growers/yr
f. 2,747 tons
g. $47.71