Cattle play a big role in the success of the Anderson farm

Mar 21, 2023

KISBEY - Sarah and Jim Anderson, along with their three children, Morgan, 8, Quinn, 6, and Cole, 3, live southeast of Kisbey on a ranch.

The farm formerly was owned by Gerry and Betty Wyatt, who at the time built a sales barn for farmers to sell their purebred cattle.

The Anderson family bought the farm in 2010, and the sales barn was something that intrigued them to continue with the purebred sales.

Sarah was raised in central Alberta, while Jim lived two hours north of Yorkton. Both of them attended Lakeland College, Sarah - for animal science, and Jim - for agricultural production and welding.

They met at college and once school was completed, they wanted to start a life together on a ranch.

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

Eric van Heugten, PhD, professor and swine extension specialist at North Carolina State University, recently spoke at the Iowa Swine Day Pre-Conference Symposium, titled Soybean Meal 360°: Expanding our horizons through discoveries and field-proven feeding strategies for improving pork production. The event was sponsored by Iowa State University and U.S. Soy.

Soybean meal offers pig producers a high-value proposition. It’s a high-quality protein source, providing essential and non-essential amino acids to the pig that are highly digestible and palatable. Studies now show that soybean meal provides higher net energy than current National Research Council (NRC) requirements. Plus, soybean meal offers health benefits such as isoflavones and antioxidants as well as benefits with respiratory diseases such as porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome (PRRS).

One of several ingredients that compete with the inclusion of soybean meal in pig diets is dried distillers grains with solubles (DDGS).

“With DDGS, we typically see more variable responses because of the quality differences depending on which plant it comes from,” said Dr. van Heugten. “At very high levels, we often see a reduction in performance especially with feed intake which can have negative consequences on pig performance, especially in the summer months when feed intake is already low and gaining weight is at a premium to get them to market.”

Over the last few decades, the industry has also seen the increased inclusion of crystalline amino acids in pig diets.

“We started with lysine at about 3 lbs. per ton in the diet, and then we added methionine and threonine to go to 6 to 8 lbs. per ton,” he said. “Now we have tryptophan, isoleucine and valine and can go to 12 to 15 lbs. per ton. All of these, when price competitive, are formulated into the diet and are displacing soybean meal which also removes the potential health benefits that soybean meal provides.”

Cattle play a big role in the success of the Anderson farm

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Video: US Soy: Pig growth is impaired by soybean meal displacement in the diet

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