PRODUCTION SYSTEMS
PIH-14
pork industry handbook
COOPERATIVE EXTENSION SERVICE • PURDUE UNIVERSITY • WEST LAFAYETTE, INDIANA
Pork Production Systems with Business Analyses
The Low-Investment, Low-Intensity System (2 Groups of Sows Farrow-to-Finish)
Authors:
David H. Bache, Purdue University
James R. Foster, Purdue University
Reviewers:
Michael Brumm, University of Nebraska
Dick Kesler, University of Illinois
Allan Lines, The Ohio State University
Low-Investment,
Low-Intensity System...
What It Is and Where It Fits
This farrow-to-finish system is characterized by buildings simple in design, with a minimum of environmental control and labor-saving devices. Farrowings are usually 4 times a year and scheduled to avoid the peak labor periods for crop production. A popular farrowing sequence in the Corn Belt is December, February, June, and August.

Low-investment, low-intensity fits best on crop farms where hog production would serve as a secondary enterprise to utilize excess seasonal labor and other under- or unused resources, such as feed, buildings, fences, and materials handling equipment. However, because the system does require permanent buildings, management should be willing to make a long-run commitment to hog production.

This type of enterprise is well suited to highly productive land because it frees that land for crop production. Besides, the best crop land (flat and black) is often the poorest hog pasture (muddy).

Advantages
•	Low-investment, low-intensity systems often “employ” abandoned facilities (chicken houses, dairy stables, concrete slabs, fencing) that otherwise have no alternative use. Such “free” resources can give this production system a considerable advantage over other systems that require new, specialized buildings and sophisticated equipment.
•	Because the buildings are simple in design and have few, if any, automatic devices, they can usually be constructed or remodeled using farm labor; and they don’t need a skilled mechanic to keep them in operation.
•	Facility investments per square foot and per hog capacity are low compared to more intensive systems. Therefore, management is not under great pressure to make full use of every square foot every day.
•	Many of the production tasks can be performed by unskilled labor.
Disadvantages
•	Hogs in open-front buildings may require either bedding or supplemental heat in the winter to maintain acceptable levels of performance. Bedding is scarce and expensive in some communities and, of course, is not compatible with the handling of manure as a liquid.
•	A low-investment, low-intensity system has a relatively high labor requirement—from 50 to 100% greater per hog produced than with slatted-floor, environmentally regulated systems. And many of the activities (e.g., manure scraping and bedding) are tedious and disagreeable.
•	The system usually employs exposed concrete slabs, which may cause control problems for flies, odors, and runoff.
Developing a Production Management Calendar
Because a low-intensity swine enterprise is usually secondary to crop production, most producers seasonalize it around their cropping plans. Therefore, it’s important to develop a calendar of management activities so one can forecast, by months, the needs for various resources—especially labor.

Table 1 presents such a calendar for an enterprise
Cooperative Extension work in Agriculture and Home Economics, State of Indiana, Purdue University, and U. S. Department of Agriculture cooperating. H. A. Wadsworth, Director, West Lafayette, IN. Issued in furtherance of the acts of May 8 and June 30, 1914. The Cooperative Extension Service of Purdue University is an affirmative action/equal opportunity institution.