Swine Statistics

Ken Stalder
Iowa State University

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Why are we teaching statistics in a swine

systems
course?

Todays pork operations are more sophisticated.

Operations involve a series of tasks

Breeding & Conception Rates

AI Technicians
Service Sires
Day effects

Farrowing rate
Fallout by day of gestation
Breeding issues
Health

Farrowing Production
Number born alive
Stillbirth rate
Number weaned

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Why are we teaching statistics in a swine

systems
course?

Todays pork operations are more sophisticated.

Operations involve a series of tasks

Variation about these number can be just as important when

evaluating production information
Conception rates day to day within a week
week to week within a month
month to month within a quarter
month to month within a season
month to month within a year
season within a year
year to year within a herd
herd to herd within a production system
production system within a country
Country within the world

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Example of this type of information

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Statistics meaning dictionary.com

1.

( used with a singular verb ) the science that

deals with the collection, classification,
analysis, and interpretation of numerical facts
or data, and that, by use of mathematical
theories of probability, imposes order and
regularity on aggregates of more or less
disparate elements.

2.

( used with a plural verb ) the numerical facts

or data themselves.

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Example from Kaps and Lamberson,

Biostatistics for Animal Science, 2004

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
What does the mean really tell us?

Depends what the question is?

Evaluating titer levels for some disease

Determining whether a production value is within some
normal level
Temperature values

Most equipment does not hold values like temperature at a

mean but within some normal operating levels

Other examples

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
After obtaining your data you can start to ask
yourself more complex questions

May seem simple but can be very descriptive

Range

Simply the high and low values

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Interpreting the meaning of the range

Depends on data being examined

Within a production system

Within an operation
Within a group of pigs

Grow Finish pigs

Using Paylean

Nursery age pigs

Piglets in farrowing
Feeding animals

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Example from Kaps and Lamberson,

Biostatistics for Animal Science, 2004

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
After obtaining your data you can start to ask
yourself more complex questions

May seem simple but can be very descriptive

Median
What is the median?

It is the middle number where the values are above and

the values are below
Often good to understand along with the mean

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Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
How do you calculate the median?

Line up all of the values

If you have an odd number of values it is the number with the

same number of observations on either side
5, 7, 13, 25, 99
Median = 13

If you have an even number of values it is the average of the

two middle numbers that have the same number of
observations on either side
5, 7, 13, 15, 25, 99
Median = (13 + 15) / 2 = 14

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
What does the median tell us?

It is one measure of the variability?

Less precise than others

If the data are close normally distributed then the mean and
median values will be similar
Example
5, 7, 13, 25, 99
Median = 13

Mean = 29.8

Often used in when evaluating financial information

Net income from contract growers

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Example from Kaps and Lamberson,

Biostatistics for Animal Science, 2004

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
After obtaining your data you can start to ask
yourself more complex questions

May seem simple but can be very descriptive

Mode
What is the mode?

It is the value that occurs most frequently

Similar to the median it is good to understand along with the
mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Example from Kaps and Lamberson,

Biostatistics for Animal Science, 2004

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
After obtaining your data you can start to ask
yourself more complex questions

May seem simple but can be very descriptive

Often see data presented in

Quartiles divide up the data into 4 equal portions

Calculate means of the top 25% and bottom 25% of producers

Percentiles divide up the data into 10 equal

percentages (10, 20, 30.., 90, 100)

Calculate means from the top 10% of herds and bottom 10% of
herds

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Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data

What use do data have if broken up into

Quartiles or Percentiles

Compare to other similar operations within a production system

Benchmark against operations within a system
Establish production goals
Establish a bonus structure

Compare to other operations within a country

Really examining how an operation compare to others
under similar buying systems, financial circumstances,
etc.

Compare to other operations across the world

Ultimately defines the most efficient production around the
world
Generally the economic situation is most important in these
comparisons as it will ultimately determine where pork is
produced world-wide.

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
The mean, mode, median, range are really
descriptive statistics.

Often used in a snap shot in time

These values really tell us nothing about the

variability with our data.

Why is understanding the variability or the

variation in a production system important?

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Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Standard deviation = a measure of the
variability within some data

Under the normal distribution assumptions:

68% of the data will fall within 1 standard

deviation of the mean

95% of the data will fall within 2 standard

deviations of the mean

Almost all (99.7%) of the data will fall within 3

standard deviations of the mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Standard deviation = a measure of the
variability within some data

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Image from:
http://www.spcforexcel.com/normal-probability-plots

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Standard deviation = a measure of the
variability within some data

68.3 % of the area represented 1 SD

95.4 % of the area represented 2 SD

99.7 % of the area represented 1 SD

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Image from:
http://www.spcforexcel.com/normal-probability-plots

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Standard deviation = a measure of the
variability within some data

The normal curve can take on a variety of

shapes depending on the variation that exists
within the data

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Standard deviation = a measure of the
variability within some data

What does the SD really tell us when looking

data from swine operations?

Number born alive

Number weaned
Weaning weight
Weaning age
Return to estrus
Backfat
Loin muscle area
Percent lean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Mean

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Example from Kaps and Lamberson,

Biostatistics for Animal Science, 2004

Basic statistical measures commonly used when

evaluating swine data
Why is understanding the variability or the
variation in a production system important?

It starts by understanding a term called

throughput

Units produced per unit of fixed costs

Lbs of pork per $ fixed costs a slaughter facility

Lbs of sausage per $ fixed costs in a processing facility
Pigs produced per $ fixed costs in a breed to wean operation

Variation usually takes away from throughput

Looking for variation causes to correct or reduce

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Basic statistical measures to interpret scientific

publications
Graduates going into more technical fields
related to swine production

Often asked to interpret information for the

company you work for or the clientele you
serve

Need be able to understand scientific

publications

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Basic statistical measures to interpret scientific

publications
Most papers have a null hypothesis or H0

No difference between treatment means

What does P < 0.05 mean

I reject the null hypothesis of no treatment mean

difference
I am saying there is a difference
5% chance of declaring a difference when it really was
not there.

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY

Basic statistical measures to interpret scientific

publications
Most papers have a null hypothesis or H0

No difference between treatment means

Does P > 0.05 mean that there is no difference?

Not necessarily
Did the research have enough animals or pens of animals in
each treatment to detect a difference
If not best to say no difference was observed
The more variation with the data measured the more animals
or pens of animals that have to be tested

Example

Reproductive traits number born alive and weaned

Performance traits growth rate and feed efficiency
Carcass traits backfat, loin muscle area, percent lean

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Any questions or comments?

IOWA STATE UNIVERSITY