Do you know the maximum number of piglets your farm may potentially produce?

Pig farmers know that you need more than performance data to have an accurate view of the farm to support your business decisions. You need a global and systemic view of pig production considering the installed capacity of the farm, instead of focusing on individual processes.

This why we developed the concept of maximum production potential. This concept links live production with economic aspects, directing improvement actions to achieve the goal of delivering pigs.

Calculate your potential

In order to better understand the concept of maximum production potential, let’s compare a farm to a restaurant. Let’s say we have a restaurant with 100 tables with four places each. It opens five days a week, only for lunch, and each person spends, on average, BRL 25, or BRL 100 per table. You hired a sufficient number of cooks and waiters to serve these 400 customers daily.

Labor and infrastructure costs are fixed, regardless the number of people served daily. In order to be profitable, the restaurant must serve 400 people during lunch. If only 350 people are served, the idle capacity will negatively impact the profit. If you serve 100 tables with four people for five days a week, this means that the maximum production potential is 104,000 people per year, with an expected revenue of BRL 2.6 million.

The same principle can be applied to the pig farm. Let’s consider, for instance, a farm with 520 sows. If the genetic potential is to wean 30 piglets per sow per year, the farm’s installed capacity is to produce 15,600 piglets per year. If only 15,000 piglets are delivered, this means that 600 less piglets were produced, despite the higher potential.

Focus on delivery

The vision directed by delivery capacity allows a better understanding of the global goal of the farm. If you know your annual production capacity, it is easier to determine the monthly and weekly deliveries. If these goals are not met, you need to make a more detailed assessment of the performance data to try to identify where the problem lies.

Also, when the farm’s maximum production potential is defined, all the people involved have a clear understanding of production status and what are the expected piglet deliveries per year, month, and week. You need to prepare your team to understand this concept, so everyone can work together to improve the results.

What about you? Have you already defined the maximum production potential of your farm? Share your experience with us!

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