In the past few years, Ron Ketchem has seen more and more swine systems dealing with increased female death loss and early female culling. Some of these farms are older, some are brand new, but the overarching problem they all seem to share is labor.

“We’ve got to get people back in that care about raising these pigs or we are not going to solve these problems,” says Ketchem, Swine Management Services LLC.

During his presentation, “Low sow mortality: What’s the secret?” at the American Association of Swine Veterinarians annual meeting this week, Ketchem points to lack of labor for the reason basic swine management practices are being dropped from daily routines. For example, if regular washing in the building is not occurring, then the system will begin to have more slick, dirty floors, setting the stage for more injuries and lameness and increases in abscesses and joint infections.

It’s the farms with lower female death losses that are also the ones that have well-trained staff and staff that have been there more than a year, he says. Ketchem has one farm right now that has been operating for 18 months and only has three people that have been there a year.

Ketchem is often asked what can be done to lower female death loss. He suggests the industry focus on these 13 areas, with labor being at the top of his list: