Managing Variation at Slaughter by using a ‘Profit Box’

“ Some variation is largely unavoidable – but manageable!” (Dr. John Patience, 2008). This last year I seem to have visited more farms than usual where this problem was raised. The problem of variation in shipping weights resulted in under-occupied pens holding up the re-occupation of the finishing building with new pigs. I’m sure you have noticed it, but housing costs as a percentage of real-term total costs (outside inflation) of raising a finishing pig have nearly doubled in