Swine Extension

By Megan Roberts, Ag Business Management Extension Educator After months and months of negotiations, Congress passed a new COVID-19 relief bill as part of a larger end-of-year federal appropriations bill. The bill, H.R. 133 , known as the Consolidated Appropriations Act (CAC), 2021, was passed in a late night legislative session on December 21, 2020. The president then signed the bill into law on December 28, 2020. The law notably changes the tax treatment of the Paycheck Protection Program (PPP) with just a few days left in the calendar year. Other parameters of the law of importance to farmers and other small business owners include a second round of PPP loans, new funding for targeted Economic Injury Disaster Loan (EIDL) advances, an infusion of new dollars to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), and continuation of several COVID-19 related employee tax credits. Not connected directly to business finances, but likely relevant to many reading this post, the law also

In a short video, Extension manure management specialist, Melissa Wilson gives an update on her manure sidedressing research project.  Wilson tested whether sidedressing liquid swine manure into standing corn is a viable practice in Minnesota. Watch the video.

By Diane DeWitte, Swine Extension Educator Originally printed in The LAND – as November 13/November 20, 2020 Swine & U column As African Swine Fever (ASF) spreads around the globe, pork industry and its partners all pulling together to prevent the entry of ASF into US pig herds. African Swine Fever is one of three Foreign Animal Diseases (FAD) that US livestock producers and partners are working to exclude from the United States; another is Foot and Mouth Disease (FMD), which would infect not just pigs, but cattle, sheep, goats, deer and bison. FMD was eradicated from the US in 1929. The third FAD being watched is Classical Swine Fever (CSF) which many of us know as Hog Cholera, a disease also eradicated in the US in 1978. Across the country, plans are in place establishing emergency FAD preparedness in livestock. Currently, Secure Food Supply plans have been developed for milk, poultry, beef and pork. The purpose of the Secure Food Supply plan is to provide livestock produce

By Jason Ertl, Ag Production Systems Extension Educator in Nicollet and Sibley countiesOriginally printed in The LAND – as December 11/December 18, 2020 Swine & U column Fall 2020 was a prime example of the drastic temperature changes we can expect to experience in the upper midwest. On multiple occasions, parts of Minnesota went from significant accumulations of snow to above 60 degree F high temperatures in less than a week’s time. It’s seemingly harder and harder to find anything resembling “normal” in the world today, and that sentiment extends to weather patterns. With this in mind, transporters will need to take necessary steps in order to protect pigs from the elements, prevent stress and bring them safely to their destination, especially as we move into winter months and colder temperatures. Many factors are taken into consideration when planning to move pigs from one location to another, ranging from contract obligations, available space, or farm employee/transporter s