True North Technologies

These files are free for you to download print and use while feeding your livestock.    Show Pig Care True North Show Pig Program True North Holding Ration Recipe 2021 Numbered Calendar Show Pig Feed Chart Show Lamb Feed Chart  Show Goat Feed Chart Show Cattle Feed Chart 

 This time of year the question "What do we need to have and know to farrow our first gilt?" shows up in our inbox and on social media a bunch.   We aren't going to go into facilities except to say you need somewhere that you can keep 70 degrees or so draft free and provide supplemental heat for the pigs.   The first list of things are what you might need if you have to assist her.  As a rule we try to avoid assisting if we can but show pig producing gilts are decidedly not maternal and sometimes we have to help.  We like to tell folks to get two rubbermaid like totes.  One for the farowing gear and a second in case you want to split suckle. (More on that latter.) Inside the first tote you want to have  at a minimum OB Sleeves , lubricant , pig puller,   chlorhexidine disinfectan t, a small bucket, paper towels, a bottle of calcium gluconate , syringes and needles, and a spray bottle of iodine.   In addition to what is in the container you also want to have a drying agent

 One of the topics that always come up are ulcers in show pigs.  There are some infectious diseases that cause vomiting along with scours and certain mycotoxins can cause vomiting.  With those exceptions when you see a show pig vomiting they almost certainly have a gastric ulcer.  So what are the causes of gastric ulcers?      1. Anything that makes pigs go off feed.         2. Feed that is too small particle size. (Ground too fine)     3. Vitamin E/ Selenium deficiency     4. Copper toxicity     5. Significant parasite load  Helicobacter pylori is often found in the mucus lining of the pig stomach and is believed to be an infectious component of gastric ulcers in pigs. Of the five common causes we listed by far the most common one is anything that makes a pig go off feed.  In studies that were meant to measure the effect of out of feed events in finishing pigs they found that about 80% of otherwise healthy pigs that were out of feed for 24 hours developed ulcers. When they extended th

 You are probably wondering what on earth are the three P's.  It is our shorthand way of summarizing what you need to be successful in the show ring.  We put the three P's this way:     1. Pig      2. Preparation     3. Presentation When thinking about the pig itself it's all the thing that go into selecting the right pig.   Preparation is the environment, nutrition, and health of your show pig. Presentation includes skin and hair, training and showmanship. We did a series of videos on the topic you can view here.  Pig   Preparation Preparation

One of the frequent things I get asked is what medications show pig families should have on hand. Administering medications to food animals is serious business and proper care should be taken to use the right product at the right time the right way. Make sure that people that are doing so are properly trained and keep appropriate records. The goal here is not to replace the advice you get from your veterinarian. Some of the drugs that we will discuss are prescription and some you will use extra label so your relationship with your local veterinarian is critical. This is meant to provide some baseline information on a few common medications and how they are used.  Before we get to the medications let’s talk equipment. Having the right gear is mission critical and will save you time, money, and frustration.   Syringes: I really like the nylon syringes Ardes is one common brand for giving individual animal treatments. The fit in your hand and are lots easier than try

  Medication Labels are confusing. Sometimes after reading one, I stand there and scratch my head wondering what in the world were these people trying to communicate?  It should not be a surprise they are not clear. After all, they were written by research scientists and then edited by lawyers and FDA bureaucrats.  Maybe the miracle is that we can make sense out of them at all. Add to that the language of mg/lb, mg/ml, cc, % and it is easy to get confused. I hope that this will help you decipher the gibberish and give the pigs the right dose. The good news is that new products like Draxxin have dosage charts right on the label which makes it pretty straightforward to figure out how much to give. The bad news is that for most older products it is just too expensive to update the labels. As silly as it seems if Pfizer said they wanted to make the LA 200 label as clear as the Draxxin label FDA would make them go through almost as much hassle a

  A common question I get asked is “What should we vaccinate our pigs for and when should we do it? “  Before we get to the vaccine schedule, I’d like to talk about vaccines and vaccine handling a bit.   I’m going to limit this discussion to vaccines administered by injection and leave the ones delivered by water out of the discussion for now.  There are basically two kinds of vaccine we use in pigs today. The first is modified live virus or MLV and the second are killed. Vaccines themselves The most common MLV is probably PRRS vaccine. It comes with two bottles one contains the dried modified live virus and the other a diluent to rehydrate it. Because these vaccines are live they must be administered quickly after rehydration and you need to avoid exposing it to disinfectants in your syringe. When you administer this to a pig the virus replicates just like an natural infection and the pig develops immunity just like it would to a natural infection.

  Over the past couple months we have been receiving several calls a day from show pig feeders regarding scours.  In almost all cases the description of the symptoms is very typical of ileitis. Ileitis is caused by a very common pathogen  Lawsonia intracellularis.    In the acute form of the disease we will see scours with or without unclotted blood and even sudden death. In the more chronic form we see sporadic scours and poor growth performance. You can also see pigs that have severe lesions in their intestine without much of any outward clinical signs.  This is a performance robbing disease that can keep pigs from making their ideal weight and the risk of sudden death in high value show pigs is more than enough reason to pay attention. This fact sheet from Iowa State University (Go Cyclones!) gives a more detailed explanation of the disease. https://vetmed.iastate.edu/vdpam/FSVD/swine/index-diseases/Ileitis It is pretty clear that the antibiotics that used to be ubi