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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:
What are the Benefits of sow body size at farrowing?
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2006 | No Comments
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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Economic Effects of Animal Diseases Linked to Trade Dependency
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Global levels of meat trade have not declined despite the last decade’s high-profile bans on meat trade flows.
The economic effects of disease-related trade bans on an individual country depend on the size of its livestock trade relative to domestic consumption. The most severe impacts have been felt in a few export-dependent markets and in those importdependent markets where substitutes for banned trade
were not found.
The economic significance of animal disease outbreaks is also influenced by consumer response: Fears that the disease can spread to humans can lead to sharp drops in consumption.
Managing Manure Phosphorus on the Farm: Adapting and Adopting Beneficial Management Practices
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Due to the growing concerns about water quality in Manitoba, the Manitoba government has proposed two new regulations in regard to manure phosphorus being applied to agriculture land. One regulation is designed to control how much phosphorus is added to land from manure from livestock operations. The second regulation is designed to prevent over-application of nitrogen and phosphorus from all sources of nutrients on all agricultural land in Manitoba. In order to comply, farmers will have to implement beneficial management practices (“BMPsâ€) tailored to their own farm. Four processes of phosphorous loss include: 1) Loading, the application of phosphorus (usually resulting in surplus phosphorous – especially in livestock operations); 2) Mobilization, when the phosphorus is moved to water by separating the phosphorus from the soil; 3) Delivery, where the BMPs will intercept the delivery of phosphorous; and 4) Impact, which is the deterioration of surface water quality, usually in the form of algae growth. Reducing phosphorous loading is difficult because it is hard to apply manure to meet crop nitrogen requirements without applying excess phosphorous. Therefore, an attempt to minimize the import of phosphorus should be put in place. This includes things such as feed testing more intensively, designing farm-specific diets, minimizing “insurance†amounts of phosphorous, phase feeding, and many more. Phosphorous exports in meat, milk, eggs, and crops should be maximized, which can be done by improving overall crop and animal production efficiency. Phosphorous can also be exported from the farm in manure, where manure phosphorous quantities exceed the land base available for sustainable application. This can be a very expensive option since manure is usually transported in the form of water. Reducing phosphorous mobilization of dissolved phosphorus (solubilized) can be accomplished by reducing overall phosphorous loading, minimizing tillage erosion that loads nutrient-rich topsoil into drains, critically manage high-risk phosphorous solubilization areas, and much more. To reduce mobilization of soil phosphorous, you can reduce phosphorous loading on areas that are susceptible to erosion (via reducing tillage, for example), and eliminate tillage in areas directly adjacent to surface water or within field drains. Work should also be done to reduce the direct addition of fertilizer or manure phosphorous to water. To reduce phosphorus delivery, improve internal drainage within the soils, retain and utilize runoff water, and use a method such as a “Vegetated Buffer Strips†to manage erosion-prone areas.
Évaluation technico-économique d’un système de séparation liquide/solide des déjections à la source dans un bâtiment porcin et les impacts sur l’environnement – Volet II
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Au Québec, la production porcine constitue une partie importante du secteur agricole. Le rapport trimestriel sur le porc, produit par Agriculture et Agroalimentaire Canada (2004a), présente les principaux producteurs mondiaux de porcs entre 2002 et 2004. Parmi ceux-ci, le Canada se loge au 5e rang, juste derrière le Brésil. Au niveau national, le Québec est la province la plus productive.Au Québec, les déjections de 98,2% des unités porcines sont gérées sous forme liquide (Pigeon, 2003). Cette gestion peu coûteuse est appropriée dans un contexte où l’hygiène et le contrôle sanitaire doivent être élevés. Cependant, la gestion conventionnelle par vidange gravitaire (pull plug) favorise, entre autre, des émissions élevées de gaz et d’odeurs en plus de générer d’importants volumes de lisier.
En 2002, un moratoire a été décrété interdisant le développement de la production porcine québécoise pour 24 mois dans le but de permettre, entre autres, le développement de nouveaux procédés pour équilibrer le bilan phosphore des entreprises agricoles et diminuer les odeurs. Il est donc souhaitable que de nouvelles technologies de traitement, permettant à la fois de réduire l’émission d’odeur et de gaz dans les bâtiments et d’obtenir une matière fertilisante adaptée au besoin des cultures, soient mises en place.
C’est dans cette perspective que le projet intitulé « Évaluation technico-économique d’un système de séparation liquide-solide des déjections à la source dans un bâtiment porcin et les impacts sur l’environnement » a été mis sur pied conjointement par l’Institut de recherche et de développement en agroenvironnement inc. (IRDA) et le Centre de développement du porc du Québec inc. (CDPQ).