Canadian Swine Producer Survey Expected to Help Identify Best Sow Management Practices

 

A planned survey of Canadian Swine Producers will assist scientists in developing sow management strategies designed to enhance longevity and improve the welfare and productivity of the sows and their piglets. Researchers with the Prairie Swine Center, the Centre de développement du porc du Québec and the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement are working in partnership with Swine Innovation Porc to assess differences in the management of sows and their piglets that influence the longevity of the sows and the performance of the sows and their piglets.

 

Brian Sullivan, the CEO of the Canadian Centre for Swine Improvement, explains researchers have been gathering and comparing objective historical data from around the world that can quantify trends for the last ten years and will be surveying and interviewing Canadian producers to identify what's most important in terms of management.

 

 

Our role is, in part, to provide information from the national database that we maintain as part of our genetic improvement services and we also are using some of our international connections to find information from other countries. As the project advances, we'll be helping to survey Canadian producers and to indentify individual producers to be interviewed regarding specific practices on their farms.It's a three year project and we're just finishing the first year, where we've been focusing on gathering historical data.

 

Video: Evolution of Beef Cattle Farming

The Clear Conversations podcast took to the road for a special episode recorded in Nashville during CattleCon, bringing listeners straight into the heart of the cattle industry. Host Tracy Sellers welcomed rancher Steve Wooten of Beatty Canyon Ranch in Colorado for a wide-ranging discussion that blended family history and sustainability, particularly as it relates to the future of beef production.

Sustainability emerged as a central theme of the conversation, a word that Wooten acknowledges can mean very different things depending on who you ask. For him, sustainability starts with the soil. Healthy soil produces healthy grass, which supports efficient cattle capable of producing year after year with minimal external inputs. It’s an approach that equally considers vegetation, animal efficiency, and long-term profitability.

That philosophy aligned naturally with Wooten’s involvement in the U.S. Roundtable for Sustainable Beef, where he served as a representative for the Colorado Cattlemen’s Association. The roundtable brings together the entire beef supply chain—from producers to retailers—along with universities, NGOs, and allied industries. Its goal is not regulation, Wooten emphasized, but collaboration, shared learning, and continuous improvement.