Managing the manure professionally

Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2009 | No Comments

As one of the major pork producers in the US, Christensen
Family Farms has a lot of farms to over see and a lot of manure to
manage, which the company’s agronomy department does with a
high degree of professionalism. Regardless of the size and location, Schmitz and the four
other agronomists at Christensen are engaged in managing
manure and getting the most out of it—financially and land-wise.
“We market the manure and line up the custom applicator to
deliver the product,” Schmitz explains. “We basically manage the
manure all the way to the field. We work with what we call our
co-operators (farmers) on how to best manage the manure for
their cropping situation.”

Practical Control of Sow Feed Costs

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Feed efficiency is the sum of a many variables that include but are not
exhausted by such areas as feed ingredients used, formulation of ingredients,
genetics and management practices. It is beyond the scope of this short paper
to discuss all and every aspect of the management/feed cost interaction
therefore, the purpose of this paper is to look at the practical management of
the gilt and sow on farm and specifically those management practices that can
and do have an impact on feed efficiency. The information contained herein is
a collection both of experiences, and public and PIC in-house research. The five main aspects to the management/feed cost interaction is watch body condition closely, avoid fat and thin sows, calibrate feed boxes, maximize feed intake in lactation and don’t forget about the environment.

Protein turnover in non-pregnant sows at inadequate and more than adequate feed intake

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Protein turnover is a balance between protein synthesis and breakdown and is
affected by both energy and protein intake. Energy and protein metabolism
was studied in non-pregnant sows at two feed intakes to determine the effect
of energy intake on use of dietary amino acids for protein deposition. It was found that sows fed adequate energy and protein reduced body protein
breakdown and incorporated dietary amino acids more efficiently into body
protein. Sows fed the lower energy intake had increased body protein
breakdown and amino acids were oxidized for energy, demonstrating the
significant impact that dietary energy intake has on amino acid requirements
of sows.

The effect of PG600 at weaning on sow performance

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Maintaining a consistent flow of good quality weaned pigs should be the
principal goal of a commercial swine operation, and to achieve this, producers
must consistently meet weekly breeding targets. PG600 (400 IU eCG and
200 IU hCG; Intervet, USA, De Soto, KS) has been proven to induce a
synchronized estrus in weaned sows. The primary objective of this study was
to determine effects of PG600 treatment at weaning on the percentage of
sows bred and subsequent litter sizes.
Primiparous crossbred (PIC C22 and C29) sows from a 5,000 sow commercial
farrow-to-wean facility were initially allocated to experiment by farrow weight
and genetics to 1 of 2 treatments: 1) PG: PG600 (n = 189) administered
intramuscularly in the sow’s neck on the morning of weaning or 2) CON (n =
218): no treatment at weaning. Sows were bred according to herd protocol,
depending on the day estrous was first detected. It was found that although the performance of PG and CON were similar in the
current study, the advantage PG600 at weaning was realized in a tighter and
more synchronous breeding “week” of 2-3 days, which in turn, focuses heat
stimulation, heat detection and breeding into a narrower time window resulting
in a decrease in the spread of time at farrowing of the subsequent litter and
thus age at weaning.

Effect of storage time on swine manure solid separation efficiency by screening

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This study has the goal to study the manure solid–liquid separation efficiency by screening, under different screen opening sizes and pit disposal time. In addition, the objective includes to establish and recommend an optimum period of storage, under tropical climate conditions that may maintain both manure without significant physical–chemical changes and high solid–liquid separation efficiency. It was found that to avoid the extensive degradation of swine manure and excessive solubilization of mineral and organic species under tropical climate, the solid–liquid separation process must be performed as soon as possible. Preferably, this separation should be performed in a time period shorter than eight days. As soon as this process is performed, with the efficiency of solid removal, it will decrease the ammonification and the overload of a subsequent advanced biological treatment. The storage time under the studied conditions showed an increase in the soluble COD that can cause problems in the efficiency of solid–liquid separation
and difficulties for screening.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/09608524

Amino acid digestibility and concentration of digestible and metabolizable energy in soybean meal produced from conventional, high-protein, or low-oligosaccharide varieties of soybeans and fed to growing pigs

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The objective of the present work was to test the hypothesis that soybean meal (SBM) produced from high-protein or low-oligosaccharide soybeans have different digestibilities of amino acids (AA) and energy than SBM produced from conventional soybeans. This study found that soybean meal produced from high-protein varieties of soybeans has a similar digestibility of AA as SBM produced from conventional soybeans, which results in greater concentrations of digestible AA in SBM produced from high-protein soybeans than in SBM produced from conventional SBM. This is true for extracted SBM as well as for extruded-expelled SBM.

For more information the full article can be found at http://jas.fass.org/

Critical Alert: The Swine Flu Pandemic Fact or Fiction?

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A pandemic does not necessarily mean what you think it does, it is NOT black-plague carts being hauled through the streets piled high with dead bodies. Nor does it mean flesh eating zombies wandering the streets feeding on the living. All a pandemic means is that a new infectious disease is spreading throughout the world. I suspect you have likely been alarmed by the media’s coverage of the swine flu scare. It has a noticeable subplot – preparing you for draconian measures to combat a future pandemic as well as forcing you to accept the idea of mandatory vaccinations. Regular swine flu is a contagious respiratory disease, caused by a type-A influenza virus that affects pigs. The current strain, A(HINI), is a new variation of an HINI virus, which causes seasonal flu outbreaks in humans, that also contains genetic material of bird and pig versions of the flu. Interestingly enough, this version has never before been
seen in neither human nor animal, which I will discuss a bit later. This does sound bad. But not so fast. There are a few reasons to not rush to conclusions that this is the deadly pandemic we’ve been told would occur in the near future
(as if anyone could predict it without having some sort of inside knowledge). As of May 16, 2009, 34 countries have officially reported 8,451 eases of influenza A(HINI) infection and only 65 deaths in the ENTIRE world from this illness. At this time 70 of the deaths are from people born in Mexico. Why Mexico? Well overcrowding, poor nutrition and overall poor immunity, all of which are indigenous to Mexico will radically increase your risk of death from
almost any infection. It is important to note that nearly all suspected new cases have been reported as mild. Preliminary scientific evidence is also pointing out that this virus is NOT as potent as initially thought. Personally, I am highly skeptical. It simply doesn’t add up to a real pandemic. But it does raise serious questions about where this brand new, never before seen virus came from, especially since it cannot be contracted from eating pork products, and has never before been seen in pigs, and contains traits from the bird flu – and which, so far, only
seems to respond to Tamiflu. Please realize that Tamiflu is NOT a safe drug. Serious side effects include convulsions, delirium or delusions, and 14 deaths in children and teens as a result of neuropsychiatrie problems and brain infections. Japan actually banned Tamiflu for children in 2007. When Tamiflu is used as directed (twice daily for 5
days) it can ONLY reduce the duration of your influenza symptoms by 1 to 1 Vi days, according to the official data.
Why on earth would anyone want to take a drug that has a chance of killing you, was banned in Japan, is loaded with side effects that mimic the flu itself, costs over $100, and AT BEST can only provide 36 hours of SYMPTOM relief Just doesn’t make any sense. Please recognize that there is serious revenue in Tamiflu. The Financial Times reports that governments around the world have previously stockpiled 220 million doses in preparation for a pandemic that has yet to appear. The cost of this preparation is $7 billion dollars. But let me tell you, getting vaccinated now would not
only offer no protection and potentially cause great harm, it would most likely be loaded with toxic mercury which is used as a preservative in most flu vaccines.

Monitoring the air

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A portable, wireless H2S detection system developed by researchers at Iowa State University will be one of the topics of discussion during the 2009 Upper Midwest Manure Handling Expo being held July 22 in Boone, Iowa. Initially, several different commercially available H2S sensors were tested by ISU researchers in a controlled laboratory environment. From those results, a prototype wireless H2S detection system was developed for testing in swine housing by
commercial slurry applicators. A two-piece prototype consisting of a battery operated sensor/transmitter and receiver was constructed. The sensor/transmitter is placed in the swine housing area before agitation/removal begins; the
operator can then monitor H2S concentrations from outside the building. An operatorprogrammed visual/audio alarm can be set to activate at a desired concentration to alert the operator of dangerous H2S conditions. Once
alerted, the operator can take action to dissipate the H2S gas. Testing confirmed that if monitored, dangerous levels of H2S gas can be dissipated by adjusting ventilation during slurry agitation and removal. This testing also showed
that eliminating above surface slurry agitation greatly reduces H2S burst releases. Additional information about the wireless H2S detection system will be provided during an educational session at the 2009 Upper Midwest Manure Handling Expo in Boone, Iowa (http://www.ag.iastate.edu/wastemgmt/expo_home.htm ). Results from field testing and H2S mitigation techniques will also be discussed by the development team.

The effect of ractopamine supplementation at 5 ppm of swine finishing diets on growth performance, carcass composition and ultimate pork quality

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Five hundred thirty-six finishing pigs were placed on experiment for an average of 26 d prior to slaughter, to determine the effects of 5 mg ractopamine hydrochloride (RAC) per kg of diet on growth performance, carcass composition and the eating quality of pork. Treatments included a control diet similar to a western Canadian commercial finishing diet and a treatment diet containing 5 mg RAC kg-1 with elevated amino acids, vitamins and minerals. The experiment started when average animal weight was 86 kg; pigs were marketed at an average liveweight of 118 kg. Two pigs were selected from each of 32 pens in week 4 of the experiment, for detailed carcass and meat quality evaluation, providing 16 pigs per gender per treatment. RAC-fed pigs reached market weight 4 d sooner (P 13% faster (P backfat and 2.5 mm thicker loins (P but RAC-fed pigs had lower CIE a* and b* measurements (P or overall acceptability (P>0.10), but increased Warner-Bratzler shear force and reduced taste panel tenderness slightly (P improve carcass composition. Minimal impact on pork quality can also be expected with the use of RAC fed at this level.

Transportation of Pigs in Western Canada: Temperatures Within Trucks During Winter and Summer Months

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The pigs were transported from the PSC Elstow Research Farm, and involved approximately 8 hours of travel to the Maple Leaf plant in Brandon. Pigs were loaded in the evening and transported overnight to arrive at the packing plant at 6 am. Trials were conducted in both winter and summer. The truck used for transportation was a three-deck dual (cattle and pigs) purpose, pot-belly trailer. The temperature conditions pigs are exposed to during transport vary considerably between seasons and among compartments within a vehicle. It was found that it may be possible to better standardize these temperature variations by changing ventilation and insulation values in each section/compartment of the trailer. The results found in this study will provide direction for important studies in the future.