Other key findings in the report were:

• Of the 75.8 million hogs and pigs, 69.8 million were market hogs, while 6.00 million were kept for breeding.
• Between September and November 2024, 35.2 million pigs were weaned on U.S. farms, up 2% from the same time period one year earlier.
• From September through November 2024, U.S. hog and pig producers weaned an average of 11.92 pigs per litter.
• U.S. hog producers intend to have 2.93 million sows farrow between December 2024 and February 2025, and 2.95 million sows farrow between March 2025 and May 2025.
• Iowa hog producers accounted for the largest inventory among the states, at 24.6 million head. Minnesota had the second largest inventory at 9.50 million head. North Carolina was third with 8.20 million head.

To obtain an accurate measurement of the U.S. swine industry, NASS surveyed 6,046 operators across the nation during the first half of December. The data collected were received online through NASS’s Respondent Portal, by mail, telephone and through face-to-face interviews.

The Quarterly Hogs and Pigs report and all other NASS reports are available online at www.nass.usda.gov.

–USDA NASS

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The teachers were nominated by members of their communities, their students, administrators or other teachers for their hard work, dedication, and impact on students.

“Teachers play a vital role in shaping the future and we recognize the hard work and dedication they pour into their classrooms,” said Jeanette Merritt, Director of Communications for Indiana Pork. “We hope these gift cards can help ease some of the burden of out-of-pocket expenses for supplies and resources, ensuring teachers have the tools they need to create a positive learning environment for students.”

The gift cards will be distributed to teachers across Indiana who are often faced with the challenge of purchasing classroom materials using their personal funds. By alleviating some of these financial pressures, Indiana Pork seeks to show its appreciation for educators while also encouraging continued excellence in the classroom.

“Teachers often go above and beyond for their students and it’s important that we recognize their sacrifices and dedication,” Merritt added. “Indiana Pork is honored to give back to educators who work tirelessly to prepare the next generation.”

Indiana Pork, representing Indiana’s nearly 2,800 pig farmers, remains committed to fostering community relationships, supporting education, and promoting agriculture throughout the state.

For more information about Indiana Pork and its initiatives, visit www.IndianaPork.org.

— Indiana Pork

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People worried they’ll never get a scarce human transplant asked: When could we get a pig kidney?

Alex Berrios of Louisville, Kentucky, needs a second transplant but finding another human match is proving impossible. So he’s closely watching for a chance at pig kidney research.

“It may not work, and I have to be OK with that,” Berrios said. “I think it’s worth the shot.”

Now two U.S. companies aim to begin the world’s first clinical trials of xenotransplantation in 2025 – using pig kidneys or hearts to try to save human lives. Would-be volunteers are impatient to see if they’ll qualify as researchers fine-tune how best to test if the humanized pig organs they’ve designed might really work.

Anticipation is growing with news that an Alabama woman was faring well after a pig kidney transplant at NYU in late November. Towana Looney is the fifth American to receive a gene-edited pig organ, each case so far an emergency experiment for people out of options.

None of the previous recipients — two given pig hearts and two kidneys — survived more than two months but that hasn’t deterred researchers hunting an alternative to the dire shortage of transplantable organs.

“We have to have the courage to continue,” said University of Maryland transplant surgeon Dr. Bartley Griffith.

Patients are driving the quest for pig organ transplants

Back in 2022, Griffith had a hard time figuring out how to ask a dying patient if he’d consider undergoing the world’s first transplant of a gene-edited pig heart.

“I was so afraid to mention the word pig heart,” Griffith said. He marveled that patient David Bennett responded with a joke about oinking and made clear if the last-ditch attempt failed that “maybe you’ll learn something for others like me.”

Fast forward to late 2023, when patients at a National Kidney Foundation meeting with FDA officials and pig developers described a life so miserable on dialysis that they, too, would chance an animal organ.

“Why not try? That was really what we took back,” said Mike Curtis, CEO of eGenesis, one of the companies developing organs. “It was like we really almost have an obligation to try.”

“The patients pushed us to go ahead,” agreed Dr. Tatsuo Kawai, a Mass General surgeon who’d been reluctant to even broach the idea – but last March, four months after that meeting, gave a longtime patient the first gene-edited pig kidney.

Sick and tired from dialysis, patients raise their hands for pig kidneys

In Palm Springs, California, Carl McNew emailed NYU to ask about volunteering while he’s still fairly healthy.

McNew donated a kidney to his husband in 2015 but later his remaining kidney began declining, something very rare in living donors. Medications and intermittent dialysis are helping but McNew knows he’ll eventually need a transplant.

“There’s just something about being part of something like that, that is so cutting-edge,” said McNew, who spotted news of NYU’s xenotransplant research in 2023 and emailed his interest.

For Louisville’s Berrios, donor scarcity isn’t the only hurdle. Born with a single kidney that failed in his late 20s, a living donor transplant restored his health for 13 years. But it failed in 2020 and he has since developed antibodies that would destroy another human kidney, what doctors call “highly sensitized.”

Every Monday, Wednesday and Friday, Berrios quietly slips out of his home before dawn to spend nearly four hours tethered to a dialysis machine. Getting the grueling treatments at 5 a.m. is the only way the father of two can both stay alive and hold down a fulltime job.

But dialysis doesn’t fully replace kidney function – people slowly get sicker. So even as Berrios tried an experimental therapy to tamp down his problem antibodies, he told NYU he’s interested in a pig kidney.

Expected soon: Rigorous trials testing pig organ transplants

FDA rules require that pig organs be extensively tested in monkeys or baboons before humans. And while researchers have extended those primates’ survival to a year, sometimes longer, they were desperate for experience with people. After all, the pig organs are genetically altered to be more humanlike, not more baboon-like.

At NYU and the University of Alabama at Birmingham, surgeons first tested pig organs in bodies of the recently deceased, donated for scientific research.

And patients given pig organs so far have been “compassionate use” transplants, experiments that FDA allows in select emergency cases for people out of other options.

Although the first four didn’t survive long, in part because of complications from other diseases, those experiments proved pig organs could work at least for a while and offered other lessons. For example, discovery of a hidden pig virus in the first heart transplant prompted better tests for that risk.

Only rigorous studies comparing similarly ill patients will offer a clearer picture of pig organs’ potential – maybe those like Looney. Despite eight years of dialysis, she wasn’t nearly as sick as prior xenotransplant recipients but couldn’t find a matching donor. Like Berrios, she had a highly sensitized immune response.

Looney may be “kind of a litmus test” for trial candidates, said NYU’s Montgomery, who led her transplant with her original surgeon in Alabama, Dr. Jayme Locke. “She’s received the transplant at just the right time,” before dialysis did too much damage.

What gene edits produced the best pig organs for human transplant?

Scientists have tried animal-to-human transplants for years without success but now they can edit pig genes, trying to bridge the species gap enough to keep the human immune system from immediately attacking the foreign tissue. Still, nobody knows the best gene combination.

Revivicor, a United Therapeutics subsidiary, produces kidneys and hearts with 10 gene edits, “knocking out” pig genes that trigger hyper-rejection and excessive organ growth and adding some human genes to improve compatibility. Maryland used hearts with 10 gene edits in its two xenotransplants. Looney also got a kidney with 10 gene edits, based on Locke’s research when she worked in Alabama.

While Montgomery is thrilled with Looney’s progress, he’s done most work using Revivicor pigs with just one gene edit, in a xenotransplant last April and in research with the deceased.

“Our feeling is, you know, less is more,” said Montgomery, noting it’s easier to mass produce pigs with fewer gene alterations. Looney’s transplant offers a chance to compare “really how much difference those additional gene edits are making.”

In Boston, eGenesis has still another approach – a whopping 69 gene edits. In addition to 10 genetic alterations to improve human compatibility, genes linked to certain pig viruses also are inactivated.

Pig organ transplants still have much to prove

Researchers feel pressure to show if pig organs can keep people alive much longer than a few months, said eGenesis’ Curtis. If not, the question will be “do we have the right gene edits?”

The balance is choosing participants sick enough to qualify but not so sick they have no chance.

“There’s a tremendous number of patients who would be very willing, very willing to do this,” said Dr. Silke Niederhaus of the University of Maryland, who isn’t involved in xenotransplant research but watches it closely.

Niederhaus became a kidney transplant surgeon because around her 12th birthday, one saved her life. That kidney lasted three decades. When it failed, it took five years to find another. So she understands the draw of pig research, and urges people to learn their odds of getting a human kidney before volunteering.

If they’re younger, healthier or have a living donor, “I would probably say go with what’s known and what’s proven,” Niederhaus said. But if they’re older and dialysis is starting to fail, “maybe it’s worth taking the risk.”

AP video journalist Shelby Lum contributed to this story.

The Associated Press Health and Science Department receives support from the Howard Hughes Medical Institute’s Science and Educational Media Group. The AP is solely responsible for all content.

–By LAURAN NEERGAARD
AP Medical Writer

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“On behalf of Ohio’s pig farmers, landowners, and many others in agriculture, we’re very pleased with this historic bipartisan vote by both houses as we now await Governor DeWine’s signature as the final act needed to allow this much-needed legislation to become law,” said Cheryl Day, executive vice president of the Ohio Pork Council. “We want to thank the tireless efforts of our bill sponsors Rep. Don Jones and Rep. Bob Peterson, along with Sen. Tim Schaffer. They all worked hard to help us get this bill passed so that our state’s farmers have more protection against costly foreign animal diseases. The nonpartisan, broad support we’ve seen only underscores the clear need to sign this legislation into law immediately.”

Beyond the reduced risk of animal disease, Day points to the immense damage that non-native feral swine bring to Ohio’s land, crops, soil, and water, which she says alone justifies the governor’s signature of H.B. 503. She points to USDA estimates that attribute $2.5 billion of damage each year caused by wild pigs to the ag sector alone.

Earlier this year, Ohio Veterinary Medical Association Executive Director Christopher Henney said in written testimony that feral swine may carry at least 30 viral and bacterial diseases and nearly 40 parasites.

“By outlawing the hunting and importation of feral swine into the state, Ohio will continue to be a national leader in the agriculture and animal health industries,” Henney wrote. “This bill is a significant step in the right direction for Ohio, and OVMA is proud to support this effort.”

Other groups that have supported this legislation during its time in both statehouse chambers include Ohio Farm Bureau, Ohio Dairy Producers Association, Ohio Cattleman’s Association, Ohio Soybean Association, Ohio Sheep Improvement Association, Ohio Poultry Association, Ohio Corn & Wheat Growers Association, and the Ohio Forestry Association.

As one of the main voices of the Democrats who have supported the feral swine legislation, Rep. Juanita Brent (D-Cleveland) said, “This bill will help us keep ‘bringing home the bacon’ because it is proactive, not reactive for the state of Ohio. We are trying to make sure that we are setting the right standards as an agricultural state.”

Day added, “We’re now at a monumental point of bringing greater protection to our state’s livestock and crop producers, so we simply ask the governor to take the final step to make it a reality and give our farm families the extra protection they deserve.”

About the Ohio Pork Council
The Ohio Pork Council was established in 1968, beginning with nearly 800 pig farmers dedicated to the task of promoting their own product. Currently, OPC has approximately 2,500 members. Their mission is to serve and benefit all Ohio pork producers. To learn more about the Ohio Pork Council, visit www.OhioPork.org or call 614-882-5887.

— Ohio Pork Council

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The study is looking at corn yields and soil health indicators under three separate treatments on 5 acres at Bradford Farm, said Teng Lim, extension professor of agriculture systems technology in the MU Division of Plant Science and Technology.

One treatment is pig manure injected into the soil. The second is a combination of manure and starter fertilizer. The third solely uses chemical fertilizer. Pig producers and custom manure applicators in the area are involved in the manure land-application research.

In the first year of the study, concluding with the 2024 harvest season, the inorganic plots (the ones treated with chemical fertilizer), had the lowest corn yield, about 150 bushels per acre, although the differences among treatments were not statistically significant. The highest yield – 170-plus bushels per acre – was in plots using only pig manure. The plots using pig manure and starter fertilizer were somewhere in between, although those plots seemed to have had the highest growth at the beginning of the growing season, Lim said.

Lim said the team was surprised and encouraged by results showing that pig manure produced the highest yields. However, he emphasized that these results are only part of the first-year data; soil conditions and weather can affect yields, so further study is needed.

In general, corn needs a lot of fertilizer, and pig manure is often land-applied to cornfields, he said. “There are typically no safety concerns, as corn and many other crops are not harvested soon after the manure application, especially when the pig manure is injected into ground for better nutrient conservation and environmental protection.”

The five-year study, which is taking place in multiple Midwestern pig-producing states, is funded by the National Pork Board.

Soil health data will be analyzed by South Dakota State University, the lead institution in the study. Soil samples at various depths up to 24 inches were taken by at the start of the study, and additional samples will be taken throughout the study.

“The goal of this multistate study is to learn about the effects of swine manure on soil nutrients and soil health properties and compare corn grain yields with reference to commercial fertilizer,” Lim said.

Lim expressed his appreciation for the support of custom applicators, farmers, the USDA Agricultural Research Service’s Cropping Systems and Water Quality Research unit in Columbia, and the research farm staff and students.

–Julie Harker, University of Missouri

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In theory, barns control the temperature, humidity and air circulation to maintain conditions where pigs thrive. But the reality is more complex, says  Lingjuan Wang-Li, interim department head and William Neal Reynolds Distinguished Professor in NC State University’s Department of Biological and Agricultural Engineering.

While enhanced technology gives growers a leg up when it comes to raising healthy pigs, limitations lead to suboptimal growth conditions, which result in more than $900 million in losses annually in the U.S. swine industry.

Funded by a $1.15 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture (NIFA), Wang-Li is leading a team to take a new approach to controlling these indoor environments. She and her team of 11 researchers, hailing from a broad range of specialties across three universities, are embarking on the Proactive Pig Project (P3). Their plan: Take advantage of artificial intelligence to glean pig data that can help manage barn conditions proactively.

Data-informed Farming

Since its inception in the early 1980s, precision livestock farming (PLF) has enabled farmers to make informed decisions on animal welfare based on data collected from the animals. For example, pigs wear sensors that alert farmers to illness or injury.

Meanwhile, barns are monitored by a separate sensor system that notifies farmers when conditions like barn temperature fall outside of a predetermined range. These ranges are based on optimal pig growth and development. Once alerted that they are out of “ideal range,” farmers can make decisions about increasing or decreasing airflow, temperature and the like.

Pigs are individuals, however, and with each animal’s unique genetic makeup comes an equally distinct response to the environment. Singular pigs have specific needs regarding air temperature, air circulation, and other factors, just like humans.

Wang-Li compares it to a group of people sharing an office — and a thermostat. “During summertime I prefer 70 degrees,” she says. “A lot of my colleagues prefer 60 degrees.”

Like humans, pigs also get stressed in uncomfortable spaces. That stress can lead to physiological changes affecting their digestion, weight, reproduction, immunity and more. Stress can also affect the quality of meat.

From Data to Action

In order for PLF to account for the needs of individual animals, it must first use monitors to collect data from pigs and their environments — things like body temperature, heart rate and respiration rate, and eating and drinking behaviors.

This body of data will help the swine industry move to a proactive model.

“If we don’t use the data to build AI, whatever we do using sensors based off of environmental controls is just reactive to whatever the sensor detects,” Wang-Li says.

By adding data from pigs to the data created by monitoring barn environments, artificial intelligence can make recommendations for individualizing living conditions. Farmers might turn on a fan or adjust the thermostat to lower a pig’s stress before that stress threatens the pig’s welfare.

The research involved with the P3 project will tap researchers and faculty with a broad range of experience and expertise. “We just could not do the study without a transdisciplinary approach,” says Wang-Li. “It’s not only research activity, but also, some faculty may focus on research, others on extension and teaching. There are a lot of pieces.”

Faculty involved in the P3 project include:

• Suzanne Leonard, NC State animal science assistant professor in PLF, will lead efforts in collecting and investigating live pig data with PLF technologies, which includes thermal cameras, microphones, radio frequency identification, weight estimation cameras, water flow meters, and RGB+IR cameras that detect both visible and infrared light; Eric van Heugten, NC State animal science professor, who specializes in swine feed and nutrition; and Christian Maltecca, NC State animal science professor, working in swine data driven genetics and genomics.
• Lirong Xiang, assistant professor of biological and agricultural engineering (BAE) in sensors, controls, automation and applied AI, will work to modify technologies currently used in PLF to collect pig data and then to develop offline AI models, which can operate with limited or no internet access, to automatically detect animal behavior and model the statistical interaction of their wellbeing with environmental conditions for stress classification.
• Xipeng Shen, an NC State computer science professor specializing in dependable AI and augmented deep reinforcement learning, will integrate the offline AI models with a deep reinforcement learning-based AI system and controls for indoor pig environments to create a proactive management system.
• Anna Johnson, Iowa State University professor of animal behavior and welfare, and Glen Almond, a professor at NC State’s College of Veterinary Medicine, will work to define pig stress levels on a three-point scale: moderate stress, severe stress, and life-threatening stress.
• Chadi Sayde, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State, will use his expertise to provide insight into environmental sensing and CFD (Computational fluid dynamics) modeling. Mahmoud Sharara, an associate professor of biological and agricultural engineering at NC State, will weigh in on sustainable waste management.
• Mulumebet Worku, professor of animal molecular genetics and biotechnology at North Carolina A&T, will focus on outreach and Extension.

Meeting Global Needs 

With growing populations, the United Nations projects the need for animal-based foods could increase 70% by 2050. As demand for food grows, so will the importance of minimizing agriculture’s harmful effects on the natural world. This, combined with larger farm sizes and fewer farm workers, points to a greater need for efficiency.

Combining PLF’s real-time monitoring technologies with AI will allow farmers to determine optimal amounts of food, water and other inputs needed to produce pork products. This could reduce waste, lower cost and improve outcomes for farmers while contributing to improved animal welfare. As a result of the group’s effort to create the P3 project and financial support through the NIFA grant, Wang-Li’s team will begin the live pig experiments in early December.

“I’m personally so proud of this team,” she says.

Learn more about the Collaborative Systems Initiative and the Food Animal Initiative. To investigate opportunities to support or collaborate with the P3 team, email Deborah Thompson (dmt@ncsu.edu), director of research partnerships.

Acknowledgment: The P3 project is supported by the Agriculture and Food Research Initiative’s Inter-Disciplinary Engagement in Animal Systems (IDEAS) program , project award no. 2024-68014-42390, from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture

–Laura Ivanitch, N.C. State University

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K-State swine production specialist and veterinarian Jordan Gebhardt said scientists have used some common household items to test their ability to detect the presence of African Swine Fever on equipment and surfaces where animal feed is transported.

African Swine Fever is a severe, viral disease affecting domestic and wild pigs. It is usually fatal and no treatment or vaccine is available in the United States. The disease has caused significant pig losses in Asia, Europe and Africa; it has never been found in the United States.

“This virus would be devastating to our domestic swine herd and would immediately shut off our export of pork products to other countries,” Gebhardt said. “So keeping the virus out is really important, and this is an area where a lot of research efforts are directed.”

Detecting the presence of the African Swine Fever virus on the surfaces of trucks, shipping containers and other materials entering the United States, “seems like such a simple research question,” Gebhardt said, “but there’s a lot of complexity in how that is done.”

The research, originating from fieldwork conducted by K-State scientists in Vietnam, relies on diagnostic tests known as polymerase chain reaction, or PCR, which use DNA or RNA from a sample to diagnose infectious disease. In most cases, a PCR test can give a reliable result within 24 hours, often much more quickly.

Many consumers have become familiar with PCR tests in recent years, even if they don’t know it; tests for the COVID-19 virus are PCR tests.

K-State scientists relied on simple techniques to collect PCR samples. Gebhardt said they swabbed surfaces that have come in close contact with feed using four materials that might be found in any consumer’s home: a four-inch square cotton gauze, polyester tipped swabs, sponge sticks and a dry sweep cloth.

“If we want to test a surface — whether that be a truck or a shipping container or a surface on a farm – we need to know how to collect a sample from that surface and then get the best diagnostic result we can to determine if the virus is present or not,” Gebhardt said. “We call that process environmental sampling. To date, there hasn’t been a strong set of qualified research projects that have done a great job characterizing the simple question of what’s the best way to collect that sample.”

He said K-State’s work helps to fill the gap that existed and should lead to another layer of biosecurity for the swine industry.

“We’re doing this work to help prevent an introduction of African Swine Fever,” Gebhardt said. “But in the event of an incursion into the United States, we could use these techniques to understand more rapidly where the virus is and how we can implement additional control measures to prevent further spread of the pathogen.”

Gebhardt said testing on the reliability of the PCR tests is ongoing, but the results so far look promising.

“At K-State, we focus on the ability to use practical diagnostic testing to aid in improving biosecurity practices,” he said. “So we’re also looking at the question of if we find viral DNA or viral RNA on a surface, is it just a fragment of that virus, or is it an intact virus that is capable of causing infection.”

“It’s a really important research question, and sometimes can be quite challenging, particularly with feed samples or environmental surface samples.”

Gebhardt noted the work was funded by the Cross-Border Threat Screening and Supply Chain Defense center at Texas A&M University, which is funded through the U.S. Department of Homeland Security.

A full description of K-State’s study is published online by the National Center for Biotechnology Information, a program supported by the U.S. National Institute of Health.

— Pat Melgares, K-State Research and Extension news service

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The educational program will be held from 10:00 am to 3:00 pm with lunch served at noon.  This will be a tremendous opportunity for both swine exhibitors and show pig breeders to gain valuable information on all things Show Pig.  A block of rooms and a special rate have been reserved for those who would like to stay and make it a fun weekend to socialize with other show pig families.  Along with a high-quality agenda, feed suppliers will be on hand to answer any feed-related questions exhibitors may have.

Tentative agenda topics

• Selection presented by Ben Kronberg
• Traceability and AgView presented by John Heins, National Pork Board
• Nutrition presented by Krisha Geffert, ADM Showtec
• Supplemental Heat Advancements presented by Alberto Lacayo, Animal Lamps
• Biosecurity presented by Jeff Morris
• 2024 WSPA Show Season Update presented by WSPA Board
• Youth fun activities presented by WSPA Junior Board
• Daily Care

Lodging

The block of rooms is available until 12/15/2024 by calling 608-254-8366 and referencing the booking ID# K75038 Show Pig Symposium.

More information

Contact Jeff Morris at jeff.morris@wisc.edu or 608-346-9561.

Registration

Registration cost is $5/person or $10/person at the door based on availability.  Lunch is included with your registration.

Register at wppa.org by January 3, 2025

Registration questions

Questions about registration should be emailed to: wppa@wppa.org

–UW-Madison

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Permitted farms are not allowed to apply manure in the winter unless it is an extreme emergency, and then movement to other suitable storage is usually the selected alternative. Several commercial manure applicators have established manure storage ponds in recent years to help address this issue.

In the Grand Lake St Marys (GLSM) watershed, the winter manure application ban from Dec. 15 to March 1 is still in effect. Thus, no manure application would normally be allowed in this time period.

For producers in the Western Lake Erie Basin (WLEB) watershed, the House Bill 1 rules established in 2016 are still in effect.

The Natural Resource Conservation Service (NRCS) Code 590 was revised in 2020 and now applies statewide in Ohio (except to GLSM & WEBL). It states the surface application of manure on frozen and snow-covered soil is not acceptable unless it is an emergency. An emergency exists as a temporary situation due to unforeseen causes and after all other options have been exhausted. In this situation only limited quantities of liquid manure shall be applied to address manure storage limitations until non frozen soils are available for manure application. The Ohio Department of Agriculture will only enforce NRCS 590 in counties outside of GLSM and WELB if there is a manure discharge from the field. If a citation is issued for a discharge, it will be based on the 590 standards.

All applications of liquid manure to frozen and snow-covered soils must be documented in the producers’ records and must be applied in accordance to ALL the following criteria:

• The rate of application shall not exceed the lesser of 5,000 gallons/acre or P removal for the next crop.
• Applications are to be made on land with at least 90% surface residue cover (cover crop, good quality hay or pasture field, all corn grain residue remaining after harvest, all wheat residue cover remaining after harvest).
• Manure shall not be applied on more than 20 contiguous acres. Contiguous areas for application are to be separated by a break of at least 200 feet.
• Apply manure to areas of the field with the lowest risk of nutrient transport such as areas furthest from streams, ditches, waterways, with the least amount of slope.
• Application setback distance must be a minimum of 200 feet from grassed waterways, surface drainage ditches, streams, surface inlets, water bodies and 300 feet minimum from all wells, springs and public surface drinking water intakes. This distance may need to be further increased due to local conditions.
• For fields exceeding 6% slope manure shall be applied in alternating strips 60 to 200 feet wide generally on the contour, or in the case of contour strips on the alternating strips.

For farmers with solid manure, stockpiling could be an option. There are two different types of stockpiles: Short term and long term.

The short-term stockpile information can be found in NRCS FOTG 318 Short Term Storage of Animal Waste and Byproducts Standard (“NRCS 318”). Essentially, short term stockpile is a pile of solid manure that is being kept temporarily in one or more locations. It is considered a temporary stockpile as long as the pile is kept at the location for no more than 180 days and stockpiled in the field where the manure shall be applied. Setback distances listed in NRCS 318 should be followed to prevent discharge to waters of the state. There are multiple recommendations listed in NRCS 318 that speaks to location, timing, and preventative measures that should be taken while stockpiling the manure short term.

The long-term stockpile information can be found in NRCS FOTG 313 Waste Storage Facility Standard (“NRCS 313”). Long term stockpile is directly related to solid manure being piled and kept at a facility for longer than 180 days at a permanent location. It is recommended that all permanent long term storage stockpiles should be following the guidelines in NRCS 313 with the utilization of a stacking facility and the structural designs of fabricated structures. A stacking facility can be open, covered or roofed, but specific parameters should be in place to prevent manure runoff from the site.  These recommendations are listed in the NRCS 313.

Regardless of your county, it’s probably best to check with your local Soil and Water Conservation District office before considering winter manure application in Ohio. The rules have changed, and you should become aware of those that affect your operation.

— Glen Arnold, CCA, Field Specialist, Manure Nutrient Management, Ohio State University Extension

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A new publication from the Iowa Pork Industry Center, Integrated Pest Management in Swine Production Facilities, focuses on management practices that can help producers mitigate insects. Iowa State University extension swine veterinarian Chris Rademacher is one of the authors. He explained the importance of planning for these pests before they become a problem.

“Part of the motivation for putting this document together was to help producers think through a more comprehensive approach to insect pest management and how it needs to be thought about well in advance of marketing pigs,” he said.

Outside of the barns producers should focus on grass, trees, ponds, and building a rock perimeter. Specific structures within the barns also can play a key role in insect attraction including light fixtures, curtains that may catch water, and sprinklers or any potential leaking water sources. It is important to understand which insects are causing issues, in order to seek professional help as needed to determine these proper mitigation responses.

“We were fortunate to bring together strategies from entomologists, pest management experts, agricultural engineers, and producers to develop a best practices document based on the life cycles of the insect that create issues for swine producers,” Rademacher said. “This information can help producers develop comprehensive plans based on the integrated pest management approach.”

The other authors of the publication are Laura Greiner, associate professor of animal science at ISU; Brett Ramirez, associate professor in agricultural and biosystems engineering at ISU; and Lee Cohnstaedt, Research Entomologist at USDA Agricultural Research Service.

The publication IPIC 209A is available at no charge from the ISU Extension store.

This article was written by IPIC student communications assistant Lauren Beyer.

–ISU Extension

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