PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
PIH-15
pork industry
handbook
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE • PURDUE UNIVERSITY • WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
Pork Production Systems with Business Analyses
The High-Investment, High-Intensity Confinement System
(3 Groups of Sows Farrow-to-Finish)
Authors
David H. Bache, Purdue University
James R. Foster, Purdue University
Reviewers
David Spruill, North Carolina State University
Clyde Weathers, North Carolina State University
High-Investment,
High-Intensity Confinement...
What It Is and Where It Fits
This farrow-to-finish system calls for specialized buildings and rather sophisticated equipment. Common features of closed confinement are: self-cleaning floors (slatted or flushed), liquid manure handling, automatic ventilation and automatic feed distribution. Even on farms where crop production activities may compete for available labor, making full use of the hog facilities takes precedent. Farrowings are frequent (at least 6 times a year) and at regular intervals.

Such a system fits "best” (but is not necessarily limited to) on farms where the following conditions exist:
1.	There is a long run commitment to hog production.
2.	Hog production is to be a major enterprise. Considerable cost advantages are realized when an operation is relatively large—i.e., at least 100 sows.
3.	There is more than one operator. Two or more persons committed to the operation provide not only “management insurance” if the primary herdsman is incapacitated, but also an opportunity for time off and vacation.
4.	The farm land is highly productive. Confinement frees productive land for crop use. 
Furthermore, the best crop land (flat and black) is often the poorest hog pasture (muddy).

Advantages
■	A high-investment, high-intensity confinement system virtually eliminates scoop-shovel labor.
■ Because the system permits more hogs to be produced with a given amount of labor, the potential for profit (or loss) per man equivalent is greater.
■	Closed confinement practically eliminates the need for bedding.
■	The fact that the facilities are fully enclosed makes this system more independent of adverse weather.
■	Labor requirements are relatively uniform from month to month.
■	A productive, high-intensity operation will likely be selling market hogs weekly. This weekly income helps avoid cash-flow problems.
Disadvantages
■	With high-investment confinement systems come more serious business management and financial problems for the producer. Investment per sow unit* in slatted-floor confinement is approximately $1,500, including buildings, equipment, breeding livestock and operating inventory (but excluding land).
■	The manager must be willing and able to adhere to a relatively tight production schedule.
■	While closed confinement provides a certain degree of independence from the weather, the penalty is dependence on mechanical devices. Therefore, the operator should have considerable mechanical skill.

Scheduling Facility Use and Labor
With farrowing scheduled to occur at least every other month, there is no seasonal pattern to production with a high-intensity closed confinement system. The production scheduling emphasis, therefore, is usually on making full use of both buildings and labor without overtaxing either.
*The sow is the unit around which the discussion here is built. A sow unit denotes a mature female in production and includes a "supporting cast" of boars, replacement gilts and progeny in various stages of growth—all of which must be provided for approximately 15 market hogs per sow unit will be sold each year.
Cooperative Extension Work in Agriculture and Home Economics, State of Indiana, Purdue University and U. S. Department of Agriculture Cooperating. H. G. Diesslin Director, West Lafayette, Ind. Issued in furtherance of the Acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914. It is the policy of the Cooperative Extension Service of Purdue University that all persons shall have equal opportunity and access to its programs and facilities without regard to race, religion, color, sex or national origin.