Using partial budgets to analyze selected management practices associated with reduced preweaning mortality

reweaning mortality has historically been a problem for veterinarians and producers.1-5 While it is important to find management techniques that reduce preweaning mortality, it is also necessary to determine whether these strategies would be economically feasible to implement. The partial budget is a simple economic analysis technique that can nonetheless be a powerful tool in helping determine the financial feasibility of a given management strategy. In this paper, we describe the partial budget technique and, using data from the NAHMS National Swine Survey as example variables, illustrate its use.