Evaluation of the effects of nursery depopulation on the profitability of 34 pig farms

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Abstract
The financial impact of nursery depopulation was assessed on 34 pig farms by constructing a partial budget model to measure the profitability of the nursery production. The model measured margin over variable cost and used production data generated from a previous study; it assumed that fixed costs remained constant throughout the study and that feed cost, weaned pig cost and market price per nursery pig also remained fixed. The mean margin over variable cost per sow on the 34 farms after nursery depopulation was £116. Thirtytwo of the farms showed reductions in this cost, ranging from £20 to £408 per sow, in the 12 months after nursery depopulation compared with the previous 12 months. Of the two farms which did not show an increase in profitability, one showed no change and the other showed a net loss of £8 per sow. The sows' serostatus for porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus infection was monitored but there was no significant difference between the margin over variable cost per sow of the seropositive (£130) and seronegative (£170) herds.