The 2025 Banff Pork Seminar, held from January 7-9, was a major success, with 803 attendees from across the industry. Key topics included, labor, markets, trade, sow, nursery and grow-finish management, survivability, swine health, feed and nutrition and welfare. Networking breaks before and after the sessions provided valuable opportunities to connect with both old and new colleagues and friends in the industry.
Sow Management breakout session
Livestock Gentec’s Jennifer Patterson presented in the breakout production session on Sow Management, which was well-received, with the three presentations complementing each other nicely.
Jennifer started off the session discussing “Gilt Development – Laying the Foundation for Future Performance” and highlighted that effective gilt management from birth through parity 1 is crucial for improving sow lifetime productivity (SLP). Focusing on key practices such as early selection, efficient Gilt Development Unit (GDU) management, and ensuring proper gilt eligibility at first mating represent an opportunity to improve and enhance overall production. Jennifer challenged the audience to rethink their approach to gilt development, highlighting that the ultimate goal is not just a successful first breeding and parity 1 litter size but ensuring the “right” gilt reaches the farrowing room, which will improve early parity retention and, ultimately, lifetime performance of the breeding herd.
Courtney Werth from South West Ontario Veterinary Services, followed with her presentation on “Weight Watchers – Insights from Ontario Sow Herds”. She highlighted the importance of gilt weight at first service for influencing optimal lifetime performance of sows. She then discussed the opportunity (and challenges!) to use precision livestock technology, particularly use of electronic sow feeders (ESF) in combination with weigh scales to implement precision feed intake curves during gestation to maintain ideal body condition with the goal to maximize production, improve retention and maximize feed utilization.
Chris Opschoor from Topigs Norsvin Research Center rounded out the session with his talk on “Between Gestation and Lactation a Transition is Made” where he highlighted the importance of ensuring that sows arrive in the farrowing room prepared for the physiological challenges of lactation. He discussed in detail the transition from late gestation to farrowing and its impact on the farrowing process, colostrum and milk production. Chris provided practical recommendations for managing the transition period, emphasizing that proper management and nutrition during this time plays a key role is subsequent performance and productivity.
Please see https://www.banffpork.ca/program/2025-speakers/ for more detail and to download the presentations.
Sonja Allen is exploring new strategies to improve sow lifetime productivity
PhD graduate student Sonja Allen presented a poster at BPS on “Preliminary insights into improving sow lifetime productivity and pig quality through phenotypic and genomic analysis”. This work is part of Gentec’s NSERC research collaboration with Hypor – Hendrix Genetics. Sonja highlighted that achieving profitability and sustainability in the Canadian swine industry requires optimizing Sow Lifetime Productivity (SLP) and that the swine industry faces challenges due to the early culling and mortality of young parity females contributing to the low retention rates and overall productivity.
Although in the early stages of her research, Sonja outlined the main objectives of her study: 1) identifying key traits of superior gilts and analyzing growth and feed intake during gestation and lactation, 2) exploring strategies to enhance litter growth and weaning weights, and 3) identifying genetic and phenotypic relationships between traits to improve SLP and production profitability. These insights are critical for improving gilt selection, management practices, and breeding programs in commercial swine production. We are excited about what she will discover in the future.
