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Swine Systems Management students evaluate feeder pig profitability

A unique activity in Animal Science 425 – Swine Systems Management provides real world experience to students about to enter careers in the swine industry. This capstone course covers a variety of topics on genetics, reproduction, nutrition and more.

One of their recent assignments for class focused on utilizing the Provimi Pig Flash Program to evaluate feeder pig profitability. The Provimi Pig Flash Program uses real-time values to predict producer profitability in a variety of scenarios.

Each student was randomly assigned a potential scenario and used it to evaluate changes a producer might see in their operation. These scenarios or market disruptors ranged from disease outbreaks and supply shortages to increased revenue from better genetics.

Students evaluated their scenario and reported on changes in production costs, pig prices, feeding expenses, and further evaluated feed budgets, breakeven values and final costs to determine if there was a profit on the pigs. This helps students envision what they would do if they were either a producer or a consultant helping producers manage different real-world scenarios.

Three students were recognized for their excellent analysis and were awarded a $500 scholarship from Cargill – Provimi. Congratulations to students David Langer, Alexa Gormley and Kaitlin Wiley for their outstanding analysis in the project. A huge thank you to Cargill representatives Gavin Meyer, Dave Bauer, Chad Steinkamp and Mark Hulsebus for working with students using the PigFlash tool, and for organizing the scholarship efforts.

Cargill representative Gavin Meyer and student David Langer

Gavin Meyer and Alexa Gormley

Cargill representative Gavin Meyer and student Alexa Gormley

Kaitlin Wiley and Gavin Meyer

Student Kaitlin Wiley and Cargill representative Gavin Meyer