Methane and Carbon Dioxide Emission from Two Pig Finishing Barns

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2008 | No Comments

This article presents a field study of CH4 and CO2 emission from two 1100-head mechanically ventilated pig (Sus scrofa) finishing barns (B1 and B2) with shallow manure flushing systems and propane space heaters from August 2002 to July 2003 in northern Missouri. It was found that the CH4 and CO2 released from the flushing lagoon effluent were equivalent to 9.8 and 4.1% of the CDFB CH4 and CO2 emissions, respectively.

For more information the full article can be found at https://www.agronomy.org/publications/jeq

The electronic nose – a new tool to help manage farmyard odours

Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments

Farm smells are not simply a sum of all odorous compounds
found within them, but result from interactions
among complex mixtures of hundreds of compounds. In addition to the molecules themselves, odour generation is
also influenced by many environmental factors such as temperature,
air flow speed and relative humidity. However, while Yang and his research team consider
their system a useful tool in supporting livestock and poultry
farm odour management, and point out that is easier and
cheaper to operate than using olfactometry or a human
panel, they admit that any electronic nose is limited on the
farm in that it can only detect odour events at one point.
It therefore cannot provide overall odour mapping around
livestock facilities, which is necessary for an overall odour
management strategy. Yang and his research team thus foresee the need for
a wireless electronic nose network, combined with an air
dispersion model on each farm, which would be able to
monitor odour strengths on the basis of odour emission
rates, topography and meteorological data.

Handling Stress During Marketing of Pigs from Large Groups

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

We have previously shown that pigs from large groups are more socially tolerant than pigs from conventional small groups and will fight less when re-grouped, as happens during marketing. This study was conducted to compare the differences in handling attributes, stress responses, and meat quality of pigs between small conventional pens and large group auto sort pens. When handled through the same facilities, pigs from large and small groups required similar levels of force during handling. However, pigs from large groups tended to load more quickly. Pigs from the two treatments had similar physiological responses to handling. When given adequate lairage time to recover from handling and transportation, meat quality was similar between group size treatments. However, pigs from small groups had a higher degree of marbling, higher light reflectance and also a redder colour. The trends, although not statistically significant, would suggest conventional small group pigs respond slightly more to stress than large group pigs.

Evaluating Energy Usage and Various Energy Conservation Strategies for Swine Barns

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments

Energy usage in swine barns and potential energy conservation measures were evaluated in
this study. A survey of 28 swine facilities showed large variability in energy used per hog
produced between barns. Energy audits conducted in four selected barns identified the various
areas, equipment, and practices in the barn that contributed significantly to the total overall
energy consumption, thereby aiding in prioritizing areas for intervention. Using computer
simulation, various potential strategies that can be applied in a barn in terms of lighting, creep
and space heating, fans, feed motor, and heat recovery were examined. Simulation results for a
typical 600-sow operation showed that potential annual savings up to 47,391 kWh electricity (79
kWh/sow) or 88,404 m3 natural gas (147 m3/sow) can be attained.

Protein, nucleic acid content and activity of m- and m-calpain in the longissimus dorsi muscle as affected by protein and energy restriction during early growth of pigs

Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on | No Comments

It is well known that accelerated/compensatory growth may occur in pigs after a
period of feed restriction. However, very few data are available on the possible consequences of accelerated
growth on muscle protein-turnover in pigs (growth rate of muscle, nucleic acid
contents, proteolytic enzyme activities). The content of DNA and RNA, as well as
their mutual proportions, influences the capacity of muscle for protein synthesis.
Similarly, the activity of proteolytic enzymes (e.g. m- and m-calpain) influences
muscle growth (Goll et al. 1998). The majority of studies on this topic investigated
final effects, mainly at slaughter weight (e.g. Kristensen et al. 2002; Oksbjerg et al.
2002; Therkildsen et al. 2002, 2004). In this study, these effects are examined in
growing pigs from 25–105 kg bodyweight (BW) at several stages of bodyweight. Based on the results it can be concluded that limitation of protein and energy intake during early growth of pigs does not strongly influence
daily muscle gain and protein deposition in the LD muscle. Similarly, re-introducing
adequate feeding did not influence these features. However, protein/energy
restriction decreases DNA concentration in the LD muscle, and during the following
recovery period the DNA concentration tends towards its normal content.
Moreover, higher rate of gain of total content of DNA in the LD muscle of
temporarily restricted pigs do not cause increased protein deposition in the muscle. As far as the activity of m-calpain is concerned, our results do not prove that it could
be increased in recovering pigs.

Molecular characterization, expression and association analysis of the porcine CMYA4 gene with carcass traits

Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on | No Comments

In this study, we obtained the mRNA sequence including the full coding sequence and the partial 5′ untranslated
region of the porcine CMYA4 gene by using the rapid amplification of cDNA ends and reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction (RT-PCR) and the sequence was deposited in the GenBank nucleotide database. It was found that association of genotypes with growth and carcass traits showed that different genotypes of the CMYA4 gene were significantly associated with the backfat thickness of the area between sixth and seventh ribs (p < 0.05) and backfat thickness at the shoulder (p < 0.05).

The value of market uncertainty in a livestock epidemic

Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments

This paper examines the adjustment of pig production to an animal
disease epidemic. We raise two major aspects regarding the adjustment. Firstly, even
if the characteristics of an epidemic depend on the structure of farming, agricultural
producers face a great uncertainty about the number of animals removed from market
and the duration of export distortions. Secondly, livestock production is inelastic in the short run. When an
outbreak occurs, producers are unable to quickly increase aggregate production
because it takes time to produce reproduction animals or to raise fattening animals.
Even if producers are able to decrease production in the short run e.g. by culling
animals prematurely, it may be costly for an individual producer to reduce yield levels
or the number of animals in stock unless policy or market explicitly provide incentives
for such behaviour. Results suggest that
trade ban duration can have large impact on losses. When the expected duration of the
trade ban increases, losses increase at an increasing rate for durations which we
simulated. Results also suggest that if export market become completely closed and
remain closed for sufficiently long time, meat market can in practice collapse. The modelling approach proposed in this paper has the potential to examine
how rationally behaving producers could adjust production after observing epidemics
and export shocks of different magnitudes. Models such as this are best suited for
comparing differences in results between scenarios. In contrast to this, the results of an individual scenario should be interpreted with caution, as they are affected by
parameter values, such as elasticity estimates, calibration values and production costs,
which are to some extend normative. Our approach could be complemented by more
thorough analysis of behaviour of consumers, producers and adjustment options. As
the duration of market shock seems to be important, an interesting application is to
combine epidemiological and economic models in order to study disease policy issues
such as emergency vaccination, where uncertainty and time play an important role.

Testing for Complementarity and Substitutability among Multiple Technologies: The Case of U.S. Hog Farms

Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments

This study develops and applies a tractable methodology that can show
how technologies complement or substitute for each other, information that is critical to
understanding the effect of technical innovation on industry growth and structure. Our findings suggest that the complementarity among technologies in large bundles is contributing to a form of returns to scale that is leading to increasing growth in average farm size. Because the technologies are complementary, the productivity of one technology is enhanced by the adoption of the other technologies. This provides an incentive for multiple technology adoption, but not all farms are equally able to adopt. We find that large farms run by younger and more educated operators are the most likely to adopt multiple technologies. This apparent size bias for multiple technologies is consistent with the view that new technologies are hastening the move toward larger farms in the U.S. pork industry.

Effects of shaded versus unshaded wallows on behavior, performance, and physiology of the outdoor lactating sow

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

The objectives of this study were to determine the effects of shading wallows during the summer months on lactating sow behavior, performance, and physiology. A total of 128 sows were used during warm weather (May to August 2001) to determine the effects of unshaded (control; n = 8) vs. shaded (SH; n = 8) wallows. Sows ranged over 6 parities and were fed a completely balanced sorghum-based diet. Behavioral data were collected by 15-min scan samples over a 24-h
period/wk for a total of 16 wk. All sows were observed twice when litter age was 5 and 15 d, respectively. Respiration rates (breaths/min) were collected on 50 sows (control, n = 25; SH, n = 25) over an 8-wk period when the maximum temperature exceeded 32°C. Ten milliliters of clotted blood and 20 mL of whole blood were obtained by jugular puncture from each sow on the day of weaning to determine total white blood cells, acute phase proteins, packed-cell volume, and chemotaxis and chemokinesis. Descriptive water temperature profiles were measured by using data loggers positioned at 3 levels per wallow: surface water, shallow mud, and deep mud. Behavioral, postural, location, performance, and physiological measurements did not differ (P > 0.05) among wallow treatments. Regardless of treatment, sows spent approximately 82% of their total time budget inside the farrowing hut and only approximately
7% of their total time budget in the wallow. A total of 428 piglets died, 219 in the control treatment and 209 in the SH treatment. The majority of piglets in both treatments died of crushing within the first 72 h after parturition, and most of the piglets had suckled. Shade kept the shallow water profile cooler during the hotter afternoon temperatures compared with the control wallows. In SH for both the shallow and deep mud profiles, temperatures were consistent throughout the day. In conclusion, sows spent a large percentage of their daily time budget inside the farrowing hut and spent only
brief episodes in the wallow. Shading the wallow did not result in increased wallow use time or improvements in sow physiology and overall performance. 

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

Coated fatty acids alter virulence properties of Salmonella Typhimurium and decrease intestinal colonization of pigs

Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments

The aim of the present study was to determine whether some frequently used short- (SCFA) and medium-chain fatty acids (MCFA) are able to alter virulence gene expression and to decrease Salmonella Typhimurium colonization and shedding in pigs using well established and controlled in vitro and in vivo assays. It was found that when given as feed supplement to pigs experimentally infected with Salmonella Typhimurium, coated butyric acid decreased the levels of faecal shedding and intestinal colonization, but had no influence on the colonization of tonsils, spleen and liver. Uncoated fatty acids, however, did not influence fecal shedding, intestinal or tonsillar colonization in pigs. In conclusion, supplementing feed with certain coated fatty acids, such as butyric acid, may help to reduce the Salmonella load in pigs.

For more information the full article can be found at http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/journal/03781135