Purdue’s Drs. Allan Schinckel (l) and Paul Preckel calculated automatic sorting earns an extra $7,000 to $10,000 per 1,000-head barn per year.

The big payoff from automatic sorting – calculated at $7,000 to $10,000 per 1,000-head barn per year in a series of recent Purdue University studies – comes from a combination of more accurate sorting and the ability to precisely implement your optimum marketing strategy, according to Dr. Allan Schinckel. Dr. Schinckel, a Purdue animal scientist, and Dr. Paul Preckel, a Purdue agricultural economist, recently completed the landmark studies evaluating potential management improvements from automatic sorting technology. The studies utilized a unique, never-before-used mathematical model that allowed the Purdue researchers to predict the growth and return for 100 sets of 1,000 modeled pigs, marketed in four different marketing scenarios. The model predicted a unique body weight, feed intake and body composition for each pig to match actual variation. In its quest to calculate the economics of automatic sorting, the Purdue studies brought some important truths to light:

1. Eyeballing pig weights undoubtedly means selling to the middle. “With an eyeball model, you have to be conservative,” Dr. Schinckel says. In order to avoid sharp penalties, “you must sell further away from the upper weight limit – closer to the middle. You end up selling the first pigs too light and the last pigs too heavy,” he says.

   “Only when you have accurate weights, can you push the first pigs to the upper limit and sell the last group just above the acceptable range,” says Dr. Schinckel. The Purdue work demonstrated that producers following a flexible marketing schedule gain the most when they sell early batches of the heaviest pigs possible (just below upper weight limits), then empty the barn as most of the slower growing pigs cross the lower weight threshold. Dr. Schinckel points out the ideal day to empty the barn – contributing to the highest possible daily returns above feed and variable costs – is affected by many factors, such as the specific marketing system and supply of fresh pigs.
    

2. Without advanced automatic sorting, you might not sell the heaviest pigs first. Dr. Schinckel points out that the tendency for selling middle weight pigs isn’t the only problem many producers face when eyeballing their market selections. Heavy pigs often get overlooked during their best window of opportunity, he says. “You won’t be able to find all the heaviest pigs for the first batch and then they are too heavy by the next time,” says Dr. Schinckel. “Sort loss will increase and number of pounds of pork sold during the same time period will decrease as well.” A more sophisticated automated sorting system, such as FAST II, has a built-in function that predicts the cutoff weight or sort weight needed to fill a semi-load of the heaviest pigs possible.
    
3. Deciding when to begin feeding Paylean™ is more precise when pig weights are known. Dr. Schinckel says that one of the management decisions that producers often wrestle with is when to begin feeding Paylean™ . Elanco has developed specific recommended programs, including the Step-Up Program that targets specific dosages for a specific number of days. By precisely monitoring how fast pigs are growing, automatic sorting is a tool to help pinpoint the day pigs hit the optimum Paylean start weight.”

Click here for the complete Purdue Research report in Adobe Acrobat PDF format.