Anytime your pigs expend energy on something other than growing, Feed Conversion Ratio (FCR) is negatively impacted. When pigs are stressed, sick, or agitated, they divert valuable energy away from growth towards solving the issue at hand. Eliminating these stressors and waste will lead to improvements in FCR that can translate into thousands of dollars in extra profit per animal group.

We believe every farm can get to an FCR of 2.53, which represents the 60^th percentile of performers. The room for improvement of course varies by farm, MetaFarms data shows that farms in the lowest percentiles could improve by nearly 10%, while farms in the 30th percentile for example, have room for a 4% improvement.

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The Financial Impact of a Better FCR

Our analysis shows the following cost savings of improved FCR on both a per pig and per pig group basis:

These numbers assume a 2400 head barn

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What Producers Can Do

Now you know how much money there is to be saved, here are the three main areas to focus on to improve FCR.

Preventing Out-of-Feed Events

Pigs without feed experience stress, increased aggression, and energy loss due to unnecessary activity. When feed is unavailable, pigs may start tail-biting or fighting, which burns additional calories that should be used for growth. Sites that experience more out-of-feed hours record higher FCR scores. Feed outages worsen FCR by 2-5% adding a cost of $2.00 to $5.00 per pig.

Managing Barn Temperature & Ventilation

Pigs expend energy to regulate body temperature when their environment is outside the ideal range. If a barn is too cold, pigs burn extra calories just to stay warm. Research suggests that every degree below the optimal temperature range (68-77°F for finishing pigs) increases feed costs by 1-2%, directly hurting FCR. Maintaining consistent temperatures reduces wasted energy and improves feed efficiency.

Optimizing Diet Composition

Getting the right nutrient balance is critical. For example: adjusting lysine levels correctly can improve feed efficiency by 1-2%. Additionally, ensuring correct particle size in feed (600-700 microns) has been shown to improve FCR by another 2-4%. Both of these small tweaks represent a savings between $2.00 to $5.00 per pig.

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The Takeaway

A 2-5% improvement is realistic for the majority of operations. Track your feed conversion and find the inefficiencies, the payoff may be bigger than you think.

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