It is a challenge to establish the optimum feeding or management strategy for individual growing–finishing pig units.  The optimum management strategy is affected by many factors, including pig performance potentials, physical farm layout, feed intake, environmental conditions, constraints on nutrient excretion, available feed ingredients, feed processing, and payment schemes. Furthermore, the optimum strategy may change over time as environmental or economic conditions change.

Pig growth models can integrate knowledge of nutrient utilization for growth and animal–environment interactions into one system.  Such models can be used effectively to identify the optimum management strategy for individual grower–finisher pig units.  For effective use in commercial pork production, these models must be sufficiently flexible, well-tested, include financial analyses and relatively easy to use.

The international pig growth modelling group has been involved in the development of biological pig growth models since the early 1980’s.  The group has conducted extensive research to explore the biology of nutrient utilization of growth in the pig.  The models that have been produced by this group can be used to predict growth performance, carcass quality and nutrient utilization for different types of growing pigs that managed under a wide range of conditions and allow cost-benefit analyses.  Careful consideration has been given to the application of models in practice, by focussing on user-friendliness of the models and simple means to obtain relevant model inputs.  Products that under development range from simple and very easy to use decision support systems to full scale dynamic, mechanistic and stochastic pig growth models.

Porkmaster is collection of programs, based on simulation modelling.

Porkmaster was developed by Massey University and the University of Guelph.

Porkmaster has recently been developed, as opposed to for example Auspig. Porkmaster contains the latest techniques with regard to modelling and optimization.

Porkmaster can be ordered via www.Porkmaster.com

Dr. Stephen Birkett   -  Associate Professor is Systems Design in the Department of Systems design Engineering at the University of Waterloo, Canada

Dr. Kees de Lange – Professor in Swine Nutrition in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Guelph, Canada

Dr. Patrick Morel

Dr. Paul Moughan

Mr. Bill Szkotnicki – data analyst and computer programmer in the Department of Animal and Poultry Science at the University of Guelph, Canada

Mr. Ane Visser