ELECTONIC ANALYSIS COMES TO SWINE FARM

COLUMBIA -- High-tech medical equipment is coming to the aid of the Missouri swine industry.

A real-time ultrasound machine that quickly and accurately measure meatiness of live animals is available for on-farm use, say extension specialists the University of Missouri-Columbia.

The new equipment is just part of a program to bring the latest information and technology to the genetic improvement to Missouri swine breeding herds says Ron Bates, MU swine specialist.

Through the use of this ultrasonic sound equipment, which is used in medicine to view unborn babies, or to detect clogged heart arteries, technicians can record images of fat and muscle. Images are recorded on videotape, the same as used on a home VCR, for later analysis by computer.

Data from the program will be used to select the meatier breeding stock.

Rick Disselhorst of Palmyra, Mo., has been hired to operate the equipment. Disselhorst, an MU college of Agriculture graduate, will be taking the program to the field later this month.

He will be joined in the program by Mike Woltmann, a post-doctoral fellow from Oklahoma State University, who is conducting research with the equipment.

The program will offer complete on-farm testing of growth, backfat, and lean muscle," said Bates. "Missouri swine seedstock producers will have access to the very latest technology and information," he said.

The program is supported by all parts of the swine industry, not just the university, Bates said. A new state producer group, the Missouri Swine Improvement association, was formed to guide the genetics program. Bob Perry, a purebred sine producer from Bethel, Mo. heads the group.

For the first year, the salary operating expenses of the technician will be paid by the University Extension Commercial Agriculture program. That program is funded by an appropriation from the Missouri General Assembly.

When the procedures are developed and refined next year, the testing program will be sustained by fees from seedstock producers who uses the services.

Startup funding is from the Missouri Pork Producers Association and Missouri department of Agriculture.

the ultrasound device that is the heart of the program costs about $17,000. About twice that much will be needed for computers and related equipment.

A campaign to raise the funds will get under way soon, Bates said.

Disselhorst recently worked with technicians who use the same ultrasound equipment in Iowa Minnesota.

Ultrasound has been used for years to measure backfat and lieneye areas in swine. However, with earlier versions of the equipment, depth measurements were recorded by hand, then later plotted on graph paper for measurement.

That process could take hours to analyze the data for a herd owner. Now the information can be plotted and measures with the click of a computer mouse.

Real-time electronic analysis has come to the swine farm.