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Industry Partners
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:
Net energy of cereal grains in growing finishing pigs
Posted in: Nutrition, Pork Insight Articles by admin on May 7, 2011 | No Comments
The abstract for a study determining dietary energy for Canadian ingredients compared to the European database. The net energy results were higher than the German and Dutch records, but similar to the French.
Evaluation of an in vitro technique for the determination of energy digestibility among and within feedstuffs in growing pigs
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The abstract for an experiment that expanded the 3-step in vitro technique involving pepsin, pancreatin, and Viscozyme in determining apparent total tract digestibility of various feed ingredients.
Impact of varying dietary lysine and isoleucine levels on growth of 10 to 20 kg pigs
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The abstract for a study testing different levels of lysine and isoleucine in growing pigs. The highest amount of lysine in a trial was 1.21%, and weight gain was highest at this level, optimal lysine may be even higher. The optimal isoleucine:lysine was around 50%.
The first limiting amino acid in late gestation may not be lysine
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The abstract for an experiment testing for the limiting amino acid in late gestation. Results show it may be tryptophan or theonine rather than lysine, but results varied depending on the parameter used to measure response.
Dietary threonine requirement for maintenance is 98 mg/kg^0.75 in adult sows
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An abstract for a study determining the threonine requirement in sows using the oxidation technique, rather than the nitrogen balance technique. The requirement was found to be 98mg/kg0.75, 80% higher than the 1998 NRC recommendation.
Dietary omega-6 to omega-3 fatty acid ratios affect sow reproductive performance
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The abstract for a study testing the effect of altering the ratio of omega-6 to omega-3, and also if any difference was found between using a fish or plant oil as the source of omega-3. It was found a plant source of omega-3 and a ratio of 5:1 n6:n3 had the most effect on sow and piglet performance.
Characterization of unknown expression sequence tags (ESTs) from porcine blastocyst stage embryos using 454 sequencing
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The abstract of a study using 454 sequence to gene expression profiling on blastocysts, which will hopefully be able to help determine embryonic quality in the future.
Packer’s Perspective of Heavier Carcass Weights
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Hog market weights have been increasing, and the trend is expected to continue. The packer’s cost are a combination of fixed and variable costs, and the per hog cost decreases with increasing volume. The fixed costs for a packer don’t change with an increase in volume, so higher weights mean an increase in profit. The profit increase is greater than the cost increase, so net profit increases with higher weights.
Heavier Carcass Weights – Producer Economics
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There has been a trend of increasing market weight for decades, and it is expected to continue due to supplier demand and producer benefit. The benefit to the producer is that as weight increases the cost per additional kg decreases; however, space may be a limiting factor. Building new facilities, or additions to existing facilities is an expensive option to provide space. Two more cost efficient ways to provide sufficient space would be to reduce breeding, or sell excess weanlings. Even though fewer market pigs will be produced, the net profit per kg will increase.
Recovering Consumer Confidence after a Food Crisis
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Listeria, salmonella, E-Coli, and other contaminations in food products harm public opinion on the food product, and can have an impact on the entire industry involved. Regaining public trust as quickly as possible is essential, both on a firm and industry level. To restore confidence firms need to communicate clearly with the public by following the five C’s: care, commitment, consistency, coherency, and clarity. Once the outbreak is clear, the firm needs to reassess their food safety programs, and renewing food safety certificates or making pledges can help as well. Food contamination can spread beyond a single firm to the entire industry, especially if the source can not be identified. Food safety in an industry is vulnerable at the “weakest-link”, so if one level, or one participant does not uphold proper standards it can affect the entire chain of production. To overcome this it may be necessary to implement industry-wide standards and inspections, which is easier to accomplish if the industry is already overseen by an organization. Finally, high standards for traceability will allow for the industry to efficiently identify and eliminate the source of contamination, and in turn will restore public confidence more quickly.