- Hi this is Sarah Mikesell with thepigsite.com
and today we're here with Nate Jackman.
He is a livestock specialist with MWI Veterinarian Supply.
Thanks for being with us today, Nate.
- Thank you.
- So you're out with farmers, producers,
on a daily basis with your position.
Tell us a little bit about what trends you're seeing.
What industry trends are going on out there.
- Well currently, one thing I've been
talking a lot about with veterinarians and producers
is iron deficiency in baby pigs.
Something we've been doing is we've been going
into some producers, into some sal units
and we've been doing hemoglobin tests
on these baby pigs and what we've been finding
is that these pigs are anemic and deficient in iron
and that we're trying to get the word out there
that the weening weight of a baby pig is a lot greater
than it was 30, 40 years ago.
But our protocol, there's a lot of protocols out there
still recommending the same amount of iron
that we gave them 30-40 years ago.
So what we're doing is we're testing pigs,
baby pigs, healthy, big, baby pigs
and we're finding that those pigs are anemic
and they need another dose of iron
so what we're recommending to veterinarians
and producers is that we give a 200 milligram dose
at day one and we give another 200 milligram dose
at day 14 and give that pig enough iron
before we ween that pig and send it off to the nursery.
So that's one thing that I've been talking a lot about
and fortunately I work with a lot of producers
that are open to that, open to the fact that,
hey show me something that's not working
that we're doing and let's try to fix it
and we've been doing pin side tests,
in these sal units, and testing them with a HemoCue,
a hemoglobin test unit. - Yep.
- A two or three minute test, and we find out
if that pig is deficient or not and we kind of
pick pigs at random and then we show the data
to them afterwards and show them, that yes
these pigs are anemic.
So that's one of the trends going on right now.
I don't think that out of a half a dozen farms
that we've been on that we really been surprised
but we have surprised our producers
and I think we've changed a lot of minds
and a lot of protocols.
- It sounds like diagnostics is playing
a bigger role in what you're doing these days.
- Yes ma'am, that diagnostics is big,
because it's not so much the sales rep
coming in here saying, hey you gotta do this,
you gotta do this, and they think okay,
the sales rep just trying to sell products.
What we're trying to do is let the science prove itself.
Here's the data and these are your pigs we're testing
so we're just letting the science speak for itself.
- Very good, excellent, well thank you
so much for your time today Nate.
- Thank you.
- Very good, this is Sarah Mikesell, with thepigsite.com.