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Prairie Swine Centre is an affiliate of the University of Saskatchewan
Prairie Swine Centre is grateful for the assistance of the George Morris Centre in developing the economics portion of Pork Insight.
Financial support for the Enterprise Model Project and Pork Insight has been provided by:
Nutritional Management of the Gilt for Lifetime Productivity – Feeding for Fitness or Fatness?
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles, Production by admin on April 3, 2008 | No Comments
Sows have the potential to produce 60-70 pigs in their life, but their actual numbers are often only half that due to premature culling. The main reasons for earlier culling are reproductive failure and lameness. Improving sow longevity decreases the size of the replacement gilt pool needed, and results in improved overall financial return. Breeding recommendations will often suggest waiting until gilts reach a certain weight and/or fatness before first breeding, with the idea that fat gilts will have sufficient body stores to be successful through pregnancy and lactation. While some studies suggest increased lifetime liveborn numbers with increased backfat, many other studies have failed to identify any correlation between fatness and lifetime reproductive success. Improved fitness may be a better way to avoid early culling, and body condition scores are useful to assess fitness. Contrary to popular belief, BCS are generally gauges of musculature rather than fat, except for very over conditioned sows. Proper BCS, and proper management when sows are outside the acceptable range, can help prevent reduced reproductive performance. Lameness is a major reason for culling, and may contribute to reduced reproductive performance and other health issues. High BCS and rapid weight gain can add to a predisposition for lameness. However, certain management strategies can help reduce the prevalence of lameness in a herd. Flooring with a bedding material like straw, and reducing slip risks can help prevent injuries. As well, a significant change in flooring between gilt rearing and breeding areas can lead to increased foot and leg injuries in gilts. Finally, one other factor that may affect gilt performance is air quality, specifically ammonia levels. Different management strategies to improve gilt fitness and reduce lameness can help increase longevity and improve lifetime reproductive performance in sow.
Using Dried Distillers Grain with Solubles (DDGS) in Swine Diets
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on April 1, 2008 | No Comments
Dried Distillers Grain with Solubles (DDGS) is a co-product that can be used in feed to reduce costs, and can come from corn or wheat processing. Corn DDGS is higher in fat and wheat DDGS is higher in crude protein. The nutrients from DDGS can vary with the source, as the parent grain’s original nutrients can vary and the drying process can reduce nutrients in the final DDGS. A lysine to crude protein ratio of 2.8% or greater indicates a good quality DDGS product. DDGS has increased digestibility of phosphorous compared to the parent grain, so substitution of inorganic phosphorous may not be needed in the diet. Producers should always check for mycotoxins before including DDGS into their diet. Up to 25% corn DDGS has been fed to grow-finish pigs with no reduction in growth performance, but dressing percent may be lowered. Research is still lacking on the nutrients and feeding recommendations for wheat DDGS, although preliminary studies have included up to 15% in diets with maintained performance. When choosing to include DDGS in feed, having a reliable and consistent quality source is important.
Nutritional Solutions for Grower-Finisher Pigs
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Making decisions about feed is complicated in the present day by high feed prices, and by the many byproducts available with uncertain nutritional value. As well, cutting feed costs will not necessary increase profit if revenue decreases as well, or if pigs require longer until market. Agribrands Purina uses an OptiPork system to help customers find feed solutions. The technology lets you input your own farm as a virtual farm, and assesses nutritional requirements, ingredient valuation, and profitability. Ingredient valuation tools include a laboratory, database, particle size measurer, and a system to calculate nutrient levels. The Purina Central Lab analyzes samples, and adds their profile to the database. Animal requirements are based on sex, feed intake, lean growth, and environmental conditions. OptiPork can help evaluate nutritional requirements, and make dietary decisions easier for producers.
Canadian Experience with Feeding DDGS
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Corn DDGS is a co-product of ethanol production, and has high energy, protein, and fiber. It can be used in livestock feed, but the nutritional content can vary widely and this needs to be accounted for when formulating diets. Reasons for the varying quality include corn quality, yeast use, fermentation and distillation variation, drying process, amount of solubles blended, the facility, and pre-factioning. Despite the high protein content, the amino acid balance in DDGS is poor and the usable lysine percent can vary greatly, so additional supplementation may be necessary. A rough indicator of amino acid content is the colour, as darker colours indicate burning or over-drying. Mycotoxins are a concern in DDGS because the processing concentrates nutrients, so a low level in the starting corn can become a significant problem in the final DDGS. Corn DDGS can be included up to 20% in swine diets, although fat firmness decreases over 10%. Flowability can possibly be an issue with DDGS in storage facilities, and clumps can form which will inhibit proper mixing. If the nutritional content is monitored, and storage and fat firmness considered, corn DDGS can be included in swine diets and provide some cost savings.
Canadian Experience with Feeding DDGS
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DDGS is a byproduct of ethanol production, and feeding it to livestock can provide a sustainable disposal method and offset some of the cost increase of grain for farmers. DDGS is a source of energy and protein, and trials were run in Ontario to see the effect feeding up to 20% had on pig performance, and if there were any economic benefit. The trials found no change in performance as measured by average daily gain, feed intake, feed efficiency, and carcass characteristics. However, additional literature searches showed that feeding 30% DDGS increased feed efficiency, and other studies show decreased ADG and feed intake with increased DDGS inclusion.
On-Farm Feed Medication Use – Challenges and Opportunities
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on April 3, 2007 | No Comments
Medications in feed are regulated through Canadian Food Inspection Agency (CFIA), the Canadian Pork Council’s Quality Assurance Program (CQA), and feed manufacturer’s FeedAssure program. When using feed accredited by FeedAssure, record keeping is relatively clear, but bin changing bins is the producer’s responsibility. Premixes or supplements have more complex records, mixing, and cleaning regulations. The proposed federal Regulations Regarding the Manufacture of Medicated Feed will provide regulations for equipment testing and standardized equipment cleaning protocols.
Alternative Feed Ingredients for Pigs
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Due to the increasing grain costs, alternate ingredients and ethanol production co-products can be added to diets to lower feed costs. Distillers dried grain with solubles (DDGS) has a similar digestible and metabolizable content to corn, and a higher digestible phosphorous content. DDGS has variable ileal digestibility of amino acids, especially lysine. A lysine to crude protein ratio of below 2.8% indicates sub-par quality, and should not be used. When formulating a diet with DDGS energy values similar to corn can be used, inorganic phosphorous can be reduced, and crystalline lysine and calcium should be added. Performance can be maintained with up to 20% inclusion for pigs 2 weeks post-weaning onward, and up to 40% for gestating sows. Problems with DDGS use can include feed bridging in storage, extra room required for storage, and reduced fat firmness. Field peas are another alternative feed ingredient, and they have nutritional profile inbetween corn and soybean meal. When using field peas additional amino acids may need to be added, as methionine, threonine, and tryptophan levels can be limited. Additional lysine and phosphorous can be reduced, though. Grow-finish pigs can have a 60-70% inclusion of field peas with no change in performance or carcass characteristics. Lactating sows can be fed 20-30%, and a 10% inclusion has shown increased litter gain. Wheat shorts, or wheat middlings, have a similar nutritional content to barley, but the actual nutritional value varies between batches. Wheat shorts have a high fiber content, which reduces energy utilization, and amino acid availability is also fairly low. Wheat shorts can decrease feed efficiency if not supplemented with additional fats, but can be fed at 10% for starter diets and 40% for grow-finish pigs or sows. Wheat shorts can also lead to feed flow problems if unpelleted, and reduced carcass dressing percent. Liquid diets can include liquid co-products like whey, whey permeate, and corn steep water. These ingredients can improve growth performance, but will require specialized feeding systems, storage, and formulations. DDGS, field peas, wheat shorts, and liquid co-products are some of the alternative feed ingredients available to reduce feed costs.
On-Farm Experience with Swine Liquid Feeding: Nursery Pigs
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on April 5, 2006 | No Comments
The Tinholt nursery farm uses a two tank liquid feeding system with one low and one high protein diet. The diet starts as high protein and gradually switches to low protein. Growth performance is usually decreased during the first two weeks of nursery, and then increases rapidly to above dry feed levels. The use of co-products in the feed means feed costs are lower than a dry diet, and the diet also helps gut health in the pigs. The down sides of the system are the high initial and operating costs, reduced initial feed intake, high levels of management needed, risk of yeast or bacteria growth, and inconsistency in co-products.
On-Farm Experience with Swine Liquid Feeding: Research Unit at Arkell Swine – University of Guelph
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The University of Guelph installed a liquid feeding system at their Arkell station. The system is unique because it has feed prepared for individual troughs, and it uses high pressured air to move feed. Some modifications had to be made to the system post-installation to reduce blockages. As well, pelleted feed had to be crumbled first before adding in. The feed system was accurate in delivering the correct amount of wet and dry components to each trough. Build up, fouling, and feed wastage have all been low with the system. Feed efficiency was increased on the liquid feed, and growth performance was unchanged. For starter pigs, growth performance was slightly lower, however the pigs fed a liquid diet were not fed ad libitum.
Strategies for Feeding Weaned Pigs
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Weaning performance can be improved by starting with older, heavier pigs, switching to a simpler diet as quickly as possible, and starting pigs on feed and water as fast as possible after weaning. Increasing weaning age from 15 to 21 days can increase growth rate and final financial gain, and decrease mortality. Weaning pigs should be transitioned from expensive nursery diets to cheaper, simpler diets as soon as possible without impacting growth performance. Even with older weaning ages, a four phase diet is more profitable than a three phase diet. The phases should be fed based on weight, and a strict feed budget should be followed. Nursery management should encourage water and feed intake, and feeders should be adjusted throughout nursery to encourage intake and limit wastage. Feeders should allow for social interaction between piglets, and mats can be used to assist this for a short period of time. Starve-outs should be encouraged to eat, rather than solely treated with antibiotics. Sorting pigs has shown to have no benefit, except for sorting out the worst 10-15% and feeding these pigs separately. With older weaning ages pen sizes need to be adequate, and creep feeding may be more effective than when it is used at younger weaning ages. Nursery management has an impact on future performance and profitability, and all aspects should be considered.