Practice tip — March and April, 1998
Practice tip |
How do you calculate the cost of a sow nonproductive day?
There are several methods of estimating the cost of a nonproductive sow day. One method is to calculate the cost of maintaining a nonlactating sow. A new crated-sow gestation building costs about $600 per crate. If that is depreciated over 10 years there is cost of $60 per space per year or $0.16 per day. Taxes and insurance would round that up to $0.17 per day.
Feed is the major cost. A nonlactating sow will get 5 lb per day at $.07 per lb or $0.35 feed per sow per day. Nonfeed gestation variable costs will be about 1/3 of feed costs or $0.12 per day. If we total the depreciation, taxes, and insurance ($0.17) plus feed ($0.35) plus nonfeed variable ($0.12) the cost of maintaining a nonlactating sow is $0.64 per day, whether she is pregnant or open. Obviously if she is open there will be no pig produced income. However, she is gaining half a pound per day which is probably worth about $0.16 when and if she is sent to market.
Another method is to estimate the opportunity cost of not having a pig farrowed, proposed by Dr. Morgan Morrow. He assumed a sow produces 20 pigs per sow per year or 0.0548 pigs per day. If the marginal profit on a 250-lb market hog is $30, then the opportunity cost of a nonproductive sow day is $1.64 (.0548 pigs per day x $30 per pig).
Another method would be to look at the profit on a weaned-pig basis, as a quoted market is developing for them and the sow probably should not receive credit for profits or losses after the pig is weaned. Cost of producing weaners is around $27-$33 head. If you can sell the weaner for $35, that is about an $8 ($35-$27) profit. Following on Dr. Morrow’s 0.0548 pigs produced per day x $8 profit per weaner, the opportunity cost is $0.44 per day, which is probably less than what it costs to maintain a nonlactating sow.
As you can see, there is not any one best method to calculate the cost of nonproductive sow days.
–Submitted by Dr. Palmer J. Holden
Iowa State University
This practice tip was based on a posting to SWINE-L