Hilltop Swine Achieves 20 Year Milestone!

Steve and Becky Demmer of Hayfield, Minnesota, began Hilltop Swine, a 220 sow, farrow to finish operation in 1980, using Babcock’s Parent program. Since then, Hilltop Swine has evolved through Babcock’s Grandparent program in the early 80’s, and later became one of the first herds to begin on-farm replacement gilt indexing using Babcock’s PIGS (Performance Indexed Gilt Selection) Program. Today, Hilltop has over 750 sows and through his unique production system and Babcock’s Closed Herd™ System, has had an average adjusted farrowing rate of 89.3% for the past three years.

Hilltop’s production system is based on batch farrowing with a 28 day rotation, and an average weaning age of 19.6 days. Approximately 127 sows farrow in 104 crates, every 28 days. To accommodate over-farrowing, any sows slated to be culled are weaned early, and those pigs are re-distributed to the 104 remaining sows.

Hilltop’s gilt development protocol begins when pigs reach about 70 pounds. All pigs except potential replacement gilts go to all-in / all-out wean to finish barns. Potential replacement gilts are moved into a continuous flow gilt developer barn until indexing. After indexing, selected gilts are moved to an isolation/cool-down barn for 25 days, then moved to the breeding room at approximately 220 days of age. As a result, these replacement gilts are well immunized, stable (non-shedding), and ready for breeding.

Steve begins heat checking one day after weaning, and checks are done twice daily. He uses a BoarBot and a home-raised heat check boar in the center aisle between two rows of females, while he and his breeding technician walk down the aisles behind the females looking for signs of heat. Steve’s heat checking protocol is to look for the usual signs of heat, but don’t spend much time with any particular female – any “maybes” are ignored until the next heat check. All sows found in heat on days 1 to 5 post-weaning are bred at 12, 24, and 36 hours after first heat is detected, except for first parity sows, which are skipped. Steve intentionally skips the first heat post-weaning of all first parity sows. The skip-heat practice will increase the born alive for all subsequent parities. All gilts, skips, and recycles are bred at 0, 12, and 24 hours after first heat is detected. Any sow that recycles more than once is her lifetime is culled.

The results achieved at Hilltop Swine are exceptional. In addition to their outstanding farrowing rate, Hilltop averages 10.5 pigs born alive/litter, with 2.31 litters/mated female/year – with an average sow herd parity of only 2.6. The average female replacement rate is 77.2% per year, to maximize production and genetic improvement.

Steve credits his start in the hog business to help from Dr. William Lux, who had a veterinary practice in Hayfield. Steve plans to keep his sow herd at its current size, and says that he still has some “fine tuning” to do.

Steve and Becky now live north of Oslo, Minnesota since moving from Hayfield in the fall of 1999. They have two children, Angie, 19, and Luke, 16 years old. Angie is currently attending Luther College, and Luke is in 10th grade, attending high school in Hayfield.

In addition to running Hilltop Swine, Steve and Becky, a teacher with Byron, Minnesota Elementary Schools, recently built a new A & W / Car Wash / Convenience Store in Hayfield. This new venture opened in the fall of 2000. Steve feels that he has plenty to watch over with both Hilltop Swine and their new venture.