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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:
Marketing Opportunities for Certified Pork Chops
Posted in: Economics by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments
The economic information concerning consumer willingness to pay becomes particularly
insightful when allowing for heterogeneity in consumer preferences. The findings presented
here show that it is essential to account for preference heterogeneity, particularly
when modeling consumer demand for food with credence characteristics. The results indicate
that the majority of respondents are concerned about credence characteristics related
to the environment, animal welfare, and antibiotics. These consumers view the certified
products as imperfect substitutes for the conventional product and have a significant
willingness to pay for schemes that guarantee these attributes.
The attribute-conscious group, which represents 16% of the sample, has the highest
willingness to pay. However, there is a great variation of the preferences for credence
certification and so the standard errors are relatively large. The second group, referred to
as the price-conscious group, has the lowest willingness to pay. The associated class probability
for this group is 41%. The class probability for the third group, referred to as the
concerned shoppers, is 43% and their preferences are situated in between the attribute and
the price-conscious groups. The concerned shoppers have a positive significant willingness
to pay for the certification programs. However, the concerned shoppers are not willing to
pay as high price premium as the first group and opt for the conventional product if the
price is too high. Therefore, from a policy perspective, it is crucial to investigate how the
degree of consumer heterogeneity affects the economic viability of a voluntary certification
scheme because the conventional product may be viewed as a perfect substitute by a
large population share.
Comparing the cost estimates presented by Roller (2004) and Foster (2004) with
the willingness to pay estimates seems to indicate that there is some market potential
among the concerned shoppers and the attribute-conscious groups for the certification
programs. Therefore, if a labeling program targets the group of consumers who perceive
that credence characteristics are important, it is also important to analyze how other
consumer segments view the certified products, and moreover consider the welfare impact
of voluntary labeling policies on consumers and suppliers.
An investigation into the effect of floor colour on the behaviour of the horse
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Hesitation and alarm reactions of horses to visual features on the ground can be problematic in training and management. The reaction of riding horses to eight different coloured mats presented either on the ground or on the wall in an alleyway was recorded in order to assess the effect of the visual feature, colour, on horse behaviour. Horses had to walk over mats on the ground and walk past mats on the wall. Each colour and position combination was presented two times so that the effect of previous experience could be examined. The time taken to walk through the alleyway and the horses’ reactions to the colour were both related to the position of the colour and whether the horse had previous experience with that colour/position combination. The highest percentage of adverse reactions was observed during the initial presentation of colours on the ground. The colours yellow, white, black and blue, when encountered for the first time on the ground, caused more adverse reactions and an increase in time taken to walk through the alleyway than the colours green, red, brown and grey. During the second presentation of coloured mats on the ground, behavioural differences in response to colour were observed, but no difference in the time taken to walk through the alleyway was noted. No effects of colour were found when the mats were presented against the wall. The results of this study indicate that the colour of flooring can be controlled in order to minimize adverse behavioural reactions of horses, particularly during initial training.
Porcine Reproductive and Respiratory Syndrome Virus (PRRSV): A Ring Test Performed in Germany to Assess RT-PCR Detection Methods
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Porcine reproductive and respiratory syndrome virus (PRRSV) is a major pathogen of swine. Due to genetic variation between the European and the US genotype as well as within both genotypes detection of PRRSV is a diagnostic challenge. This paper reports on a ring test to compare different
established reverse transcriptase polymerase chain reaction methods applied routinely in 16 different laboratories in Germany. Three different sets of samples were sent to the laboratories which were to be analysed as follows: (i) basis package: detection of PRRS (yes/no); (ii) differentiation
package I: differentiation of EU and US genotypes; and (iii) differentiation package II: differentiation of EU field isolates and EU vaccine strain. A total of 80% of the samples of the
basic package were analysed correctly, the analysis of the differentiation package I revealed 61.82% correctly tested samples and the two laboratories that analysed the differentiation package II showed only one correct result. The ring test showed that the majority of incorrect diagnoses were falsenegative results.
Influence of different types of environmental enrichment on the behaviour of finishing pigs in two different housing systems 1. Hanging toy versus rootable substrate
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Studies have suggested that environmental enrichment can improve the welfare of growing pigs through the provision of substrates for exploratory and manipulatory behaviour (Beattie et al., 2000; Petersen et al., 1995; Arey, 1993). EU Directive 2001/93/ EU states that pigs must have permanent access to materials such as straw, hay, wood, sawdust, mushroom compost and peat to enable proper investigation and manipulation. This extends the previous Directive 91/630/EEC which stated that: ‘‘ . . .all pigs . . .shall have access to straw or other material or object suitable to satisfy those [behavioural] needs’’. However, the suitability of different forms of enrichment is still the subject of debate. Straw can offer advantages for animal welfare due to its use as a recreational stimulus, a nutritional substrate and as bedding (Fraser et al., 1991). In barren rearing environments, the highly motivated oral activities of rooting and chewing tend to become re-directed towards penmates (e.g. Lyons et al., 1995;Kelly et al., 2000) and pen hardware (e.g. Lyons et al., 1995; Guy et al., 2002). Despite this, a recent review of housing systems in current use within the EU shows that the majority of finishing pigs are kept in buildings with slatted floors (Hendriks et al., 1998), with no access to straw for either bedding or occupation. The use of rooting materials, such as straw, in slatted systems can cause difficulties for slurry management and it is therefore important to establish whether alternative forms of environmental enrichment, such as hanging objects, can be equally effective. This study aimed to assess the effects of environmental enrichment with either hanging manipulable toys or rootable substrates on the behaviour of finishing pigs in two contrasting housing systems. Thousand one hundred and twenty four (Large White x Landrace) x Large White pigs were housed contemporarily in either a straw-based (ST) or fully slatted (FS) building from 35 kg to slaughter at 104 kg liveweight. In each building, half the pens received additional enrichment in the form of a hanging plastic toy (Bite-Rite). In the ST house only the straw bedding enriched the remaining pens. The remaining pens in the FS house were provided with hoppers containing shreds of unmolassed sugar beet pulp. The level of Bite-Rite manipulation was significantly higher in the FS system than in the ST system (P < 0.05). Within the FS system, the sugar beet pulp occupied the pigs for more time than the Bite-Rite object (P < 0.05). Neither object provided a level of occupation close to that of straw bedding in the ST system. In the absence of straw, more investigatory behaviours were directed towards pen components (P < 0.001); however, no significant differences in pig-directed behaviours were observed. Further study is required to identify functional forms of environmental enrichment for pigs in unbedded systems.
What are the Benefits of sow body size at farrowing?
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Canadian gilt development standards are well known as having first breeding at 130 to 150 kg of bodyweight at a minimum 210 days of age. Henrik Jensen from Denmark has a different protocol that yields him 30 pigs/sow/year. Part of this protocol has him breeding at 160 kg or more at 270 days or older. For every 10 day increase in age at first conception, there is a result of 0.1 more pigs per litter. There can also be increases in first, second, and older parity sows litters as age of first conception increases. Fewer sows are removed from the herd due to poor farrowing performance or from becoming too large, and there were less repeat breeders. A heavier first litter sow at farrowing is better protected against lower milk production, slower litter growth, and poor subsequent reproductive performance. Some of the drawbacks include producing and weaning few pigs in their lifetime, being removed from the herd sooner, more non-productive days, and the fact that it is not very economical overall to breed this late. It is calculated that a day of 210 to 240 days is efficient. After some research, it is found that 130 to 150 kg and 210 to 240 days of first breeding is adequate. It varies from farm to farm however, so a farm must assess their options carefully before choosing to adopt new protocol.
Consumers’ View of Pork Production
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The hog industry has been confronted with several issues with respect to public impressions of the industry. In Canadian agriculture in general, hog production is less positively perceived. Attitudes towards this have been slowly improving since 2002. Environmental issues mentioned by consumers include waste/manure management, air pollution/odour, and water issues. Pork has a very positive reputation for safety among Canadian consumers and it is continuing to increase. About 70% of consumers feel that pigs are treated very or somewhat well. Most feel that small farms treat animals better than large farms. Knowledge of pig farming is very low, and interest seems to be declining. It doesn’t help that media is one of the major sources of information about pig production.
Drinking Patterns of Nursery Pigs – Implications For Water Vaccination
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Understanding swine drinking patterns is very important when administering vaccines via the drinking water. Enterisol® Ileitis is a Lawsonia intracellularis vaccine delivered via drinking water to protect against ileitis. The objectives of this study was to determine how long it took for 100% of nursery pigs to visit the drinker when observations began at 7, 8, 9 or 10 am over three consecutive days • Behavioral data was collected from 700 – 1800 nursery pigs by visually recording with a camera placed above the drinkers and ID’s on the pigs backs. 66 hours of data was collected with a stopwatch measuring the duration of drinking bouts and recorded every time a pigs’ head was over / in the bowl. The results conclude that within 6 hours on all three days 100% of the pigs had drank from the bowl and it is critical for producers to administer Enterisol® Ileitis for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours. In a follow up study the objectives were to validate the pilot study findings with a larger study and to evaluate the distribution and duration of drinking bouts. It was concluded that the results are consistent with the previous pilot study; insufficient vaccination time could result in incomplete population immunization and it is recommended to administer the drinking water vaccines for a minimum of 4 hours with a preference for 6 hours.
Genetic approaches to the improvement of fertility traits in the pig
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