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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:
Vaccination of Pigs against Swine Influenza Viruses by Using an NS1-Truncated Modified Live-Virus Vaccine
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments
Show Me the Money—Optimizing Production
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As with other industries, pork producers have looked to improve their performance with improvements in quality, but quality has different meanings for different people in different areas. Such differences in the interpretation of quality allude to the challenges of system optimization. Priorities differ among different segments of production and different functions within an operation. Some objectives may be easier to balance than others, and with an imperfect system, is it better to focus on least cost or strive for most profit? In the absence of a universal definition of quality throughout a system, how can system-wide optimization be achieved? A true or full optimization is a worthwhile goal and yet virtually impossible under current circumstances. We are limited by the measurements that we can and do make of swine production. We must identify the full range of the challenge and then choose those factors that are most likely to affect the outcome. This can be done subjectively, but is often limited, in large enterprises, by the lack of knowledge of the full system. Moreover, nonlinear relationships between inputs and outputs are rarely assessed correctly if left as a subjective concern. The concept of Quality Management has evolved over the last several decades. The core principles of Quality Management, as adopted by the International Organization of Standards are customer focus, leadership, involvement of people, process approach, system approach to management, continual improvement, factual approach to decision making, and mutually beneficial supplier relationships. There have also been three general assaults on quality management in swine farming over the last number of years. They include, expansion of size and localization of responsibility, lack of measurement for factual assessment of quality, and a lack of management accounting. There’s a general reluctance to admit to the high level of complexity of pig production. There are very few manufacturing processes that involve such a broad range of inputs with variable quality and interactions with outcomes. Given this high level of complexity, the swine industry is particularly reluctant to invest in production monitoring methods, as well as analytic protocols. Optimization of production processes requires adequate investment in records, people and methodological skills. When such resources are available, the opportunities for improvement in swine production rise to a new threshold. There is a technique in quality management called the “Five Why’s”. When there is a problem, there should be not only one why but a set of at least five why’s linking the system together. These sequences are difficult to do but highly advantageous when solved. For instance pigs die in the nursery because of H. parasuis. They die of the disease because they were weaned too light. They were too light because they were too young. They were too young because too many sows farrowed. Too many sows farrowed because there were an excess number of sows rebred with a subsequent high farrowing rate. These were returns because of seasonal infertility. Seasonal infertility occurred because of a low farrowing rate caused, at least in part, by single matings during the summer. And so we can go on. Optimization of the system is recognizing the links and emphasizing them as common responsibilities. It is something that we are starting to do, but the opportunities are endless.
20 Years of Progress
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Tweny years of Checkoff-funded programs have made their mark on the pork industry, from the launch of the innovative Pork. The other White Meat campaign to the successful eradication of speudorabies. Turn to pages 8 through 38 for an overview of some of the programs made possible by the Pork Checkoff and the impact they have made
The Take Care Program and Responsible Use of Antibiotics
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The Take Care—Use Antibiotics Responsibly program is an industry initiative to address antibiotic use in pork production. The program has the potential to impact the ways in which antibiotics are used in US pork production. Success of the program will be dependent on the effectiveness of delivery channels of the program to the approximately 70,000 pork producers in the US. Because the program is not a certification or assessment program it will be hard to assess industry compliance with the principles and guidelines. The program does, however, demonstrate the industry’s good faith effort to address concerns about antibiotic use. Information about the program has been delivered to public health and regulatory audiences to emphasize the industry’s efforts. The program has been endorsed by producers supplying over 45% of the hogs marketed in the United States as well as by the American Association of Swine Veterinarians.
Spectral Signatures of Surface Materials in Pig Buildings
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Manual cleaning of pig production buildings based on high-pressure water cleaners is unappealing to workers, because it is tedious and health threatening. To replace manual cleaning, a few cleaning robots have been commercialised. With no cleanliness sensor available, the operation of these robots is to follow a cleaning procedure initially defined by the operator. Experience shows that the performance of such robots is poor regarding effectiveness of cleaning and utilisation of water. The development of an intelligent cleanliness sensor for robotic cleaning is thus crucial in order to optimise the cleaning process and to minimise the amount of water and electricity consumed. This research is aimed at utilising a spectral imaging method for cleanliness detection. Consequently, information on the reflectance of building materials and contamination in different spectral ranges is important. In this study, the optical properties of different types of surfaces to be cleaned and the dirt found in finishing pig units were investigated in the visual and the near infrared (VIS–NIR) optical range. Four types of commonly used materials in pig buildings, i.e. concrete, plastic, wood and steel were applied in the investigation. Reflectance data were sampled under controlled lighting conditions using a spectrometer communicating with a portable computer. The measurements were performed in a laboratory with materials used in a pig house for 4–5 weeks. The spectral data were collected for the surfaces before, during and after high-pressure water cleaning.
The spectral signatures of the surface materials and dirt attached to the surfaces showed that it is possible to make discrimination and hence to classify areas that are visually clean. When spectral bands 450, 600, 700 and 800nm are chosen, there are at least two spectral bands for each type of the materials, in which the spectral signals can be used for discrimination of dirty and clean condition of the surfaces.
Impact of Pork Industry on Rural Communities: Community Perceptions of Environmental, Economic and Social Impacts of Livestock Production
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Across Canada the continued viability of livestock production is increasingly dependent upon the willingness of the community to accept the industry as it continues to evolve. Issues that have arisen include air and water quality, as well as social and economic concerns. It is predicted that as cities engulf the country, there will be increasing conflict between rural residents and the growing livestock industry. Lessons learned from studies done on contrasting perspectives of livestock production is to take a proactive versus a reactive approach, build a positive farm-neighbour relationship, educate the public about farming practices, communicate with neighbours on an ongoing basis, and listen to concerns and address the concern one-on-one.
Greenhouse gas abatement strategies for animal husbandry
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