SEARCH
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:
High yield of poly-c-glutamic acid from Bacillus subtilis by solid-state fermentation using swine manure as the basis of a solid substrate
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments
Preparing Ventilation for Spring and Winter
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Brian Andries
The variation in temperature changes starting late fall and progressing into the winter months requires strategies dealing with ventilating pig barns in our cold climate regions. Ventilation deals with brining in fresh air to meet heating and cooling requirements. Cooling during spring and summer months does not require the expenditure of extra energy to heat an entire facility, as in the winter months. There are two main challenges when considering optimum control to ensure proper conditions for both animals and people working in confinement operations. The most important deals with maintaining a healthy environment and the second in conserving energy and keeping costs down to operate the facility. To meet these challenges we need to ensure that we are operating in energy efficient building and effectively controlling a somewhat complex ventilation system to minimize energy loss.
Cold climate ventilation dictates that animals are required to be housed in confinement. Animals housed in close quarters during the winter months produce heat, moisture, and gas. Heat is a result of both the metabolic process resulting in growth of the animal as well as the production of heat from equipment and lights. Moisture results from respiration of animals as well as water spillage from drinkers and evaporation from manure. Gases are emitted from manure storage and dirty pens while dust is a result of dander, dried fecal material and feed. To ensure an adequate environment for both animals and people working in barns, all of these contaminants have to be diluted and removed from this confined space. Ventilation is used to balance temperature, humidity and gas and dust concentration.
When consideration is given to conserving energy in relation to achieving an optimum environment during the winter months we should first consider the concept of heat transfer and loss through the walls ceiling and floor of the facility. We need to ensure that the facility is properly maintained to rectify any chance of heat loss through exterior doors or windows. Seal exterior doors with weather stripping and ensure cracks in walls are also sealed. As well, the insulation values of our building materials need to be monitored to ensure that they have not been compromised by rodent infestation. At least 30% of all heat loss in a facility is through the building envelope.
Part of maintaining a good environment in the barn is to ensure that ventilation controllers are set to ensure proper ventilation rates required to remove moisture, gas and other contaminants from the air space inside the barn. Ventilation rate is also a component of the setpoint temperature and insulation factor of the building itself. A balance needs to be found between the removal of contaminants and moisture, while maintaining a room temperature close to the set point ensuring minimal loss of heat expelled to the outside. Ventilation accounts for close to 70% of the heat loss from a facility over the colder months of the year.
Ensuring proper management and maintenance procedures as well as good husbandry practices to maximize optimum environmental conditions in the barn will assist in decreasing ventilation rates and in doing so conserve energy losses. Repair of all leaking water lines and nipple drinkers will ensure reduced moisture levels in the facility. Reducing humidity levels from the evaporation of urine and fecal material can be accomplished by ensuring proper dunging patterns are maintained by properly monitoring inlets and recirculation ducts as well as regular cleaning of pens. Clean pens will also reduce the level of ammonia in the room. Ammonia is produced by the decomposition of nitrogenous compounds in feces and urine on solid surfaces. At the time of manure removal from the room hydrogen sulfide is released and only at this time should the ventilation rate be increased to reduce hydrogen sulfide levels. Dust levels can be reduced by in a facility by minimizing feed handling and disturbance and by avoiding disturbing the pigs. Proper safety equipment should also be available to staff including dust masks, eye and hearing protection.
Regular maintenance on ventilation equipment is important to ensure proper ventilation rates are maintained during the winter months. All fans need to be cleaned and function properly on a daily basis. As to cold season arrives proper fan covers should be installed on all stages of fans not utilized during the winter months. These covers should be maintained so that they maintain their insulation value and do not allow the back drafting of cold air into the facility. All fan hoods should be mounted to ensure wind protection for exhaust fans so that wind pressure against the fan will not cut off the fan air delivery. Air inlet adjustment is also very important to the ventilation system during the heating season. The opening size should comply with the minimum ventilation rate to ensure more cold air is not entering the room requiring excess heating. Inlet opening controls and actuators should be monitored to ensure proper functioning at all times. Heaters should also be checked and serviced regularly. Corrosion of relay contact points is very common and the pilot of gas heaters should e kept clean.
After a ventilation system is designed it is very important to ensure the proper management of the system. It is recommended to draw up procedures for all seasons to ensure that the ventilation system can be properly monitored on the following basis:
– setpoint temperatures
– minimum ventilation rates during heating seasons
– fan scheduling
– air inlet adjustment
– moisture control
– odour and dust control
New Scientist Joins Prairie Swine Centre
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
New Research Scientist at Prairie Swine Centre
Saskatoon – Dr. Pascal Leterme, a research scientist with impressive international credentials, has joined the Prairie Swine Centre.
Before coming to Canada, Leterme was an assistant professor at the National Veterinary School in Lyon, France. Previous to that, he held research positions at universities in Colombia and Belgium.
He has been program leader for projects financed by the International Atomic Energy Agency, the Volkswagen Foundation, the Belgian Ministry for Cooperation to Development and the Government of Colombia.
Dr. Leterme is a recognized expert in swine nutrition completing work in ingredient evaluation, utilizing pulse crops in swine rations, and protein metabolism. At Prairie Swine Centre his work will concentrate on the utilization of pulses in swine diets, better use of locally available ingredients like canola and flax, and integrating nutrition and the environment in sustainable production systems. “Western Canada is a perfect fit for my training and interests” notes Dr. Leterme. Legumes, especially peas are an area of particular expertise where Dr. Leterme has distinguished himself through the development of novel investigation techniques, earning him an invitation to the prestigious Scientific Committee of the European Association of Grain Legume Research, based in Paris. Pascal has also provided leadership to the scientific community as Editor of the Grain Legumes Journal for 6 years.
Dr. Leterme saw the opportunity to immigrate to Canada as a positive move to further his practical work on swine nutrition, “I knew from a previous visit to Canada that the Prairie Swine Centre had great facilities and offered lots of opportunities for practical feed ingredient research.”
“We’re really fortunate to attract someone of Pascal’s skills,” says John Patience, President of the Prairie Swine Centre. “He is considered ‘Mr. Pulse Crop’ for his work with grain legumes in Europe.”
Leterme is fluent in three languages – English, French and Spanish. “That will help the Prairie Swine Centre keep abreast of research developments in many countries around the world,” notes Patience.
Pascal his wife Carmenza and two children moved from Lyon, France to Saskatoon in fall 2005.
Prairie Swine Centre Inc., located in Saskatoon, is a non-profit research corporation affiliated with the University of Saskatchewan, and is recognized globally for its contributions to practical, applied science in pork production in the disciplines of Nutrition, Engineering and Animal Behaviour.
-30-
For more information, contact:
Pascal Leterme
Research Scientist – Nutrition
Prairie Swine Centre
Phone: 306-667-7445
Fax: 306-955-2510
E-mail: pascal.leterme@usask.ca
John Patience
President,
Prairie Swine Centre Inc.
Phone: 306-373-9922
Fax: 306-955-2510
E-mail: john.patience@usask.ca
Effect of genotype and seasonality on pig carcass and meat characteristics
Posted in: Meat Quality by admin on | No Comments
This study involved specimens from five commercial crossbreed (getting mixed Duroc, Landrace and Large White genotypes), and collected at five different times along a year in order to study the influence of slaughter time on meat quality. Seasonality exerts a significant influence on the carcass and meat pig quality and, therefore, it must be
taken into account in order to obtain the most favourable values on productive and quality parameters. Thus, depending on the pursued final product, a raw material with preset characteristics can be obtained by selecting the slaughter time. Genetics is a less influential factor than slaughter time but it must also be taken into account. Furthermore, although A, B and C are the same synthetic sire, they provide raw material with different characteristics as regards the parameters studied. Thus, more knowledge about feeding and growing conditions of each supplier is required for an in-depth study on this subject. Despite of the fact that it is desirable that a given genetics keeps constant with time, the parameters studied, this is not the behaviour which can be concluded from the present research. As a way of
example, while genetics A provides close to constant with time weights of carcass and ham, it shows remarkable differences in protein and intramuscular fat contents along the sacrifice months studied.
L’enzyme dans les rations aide les porcs à utiliser plus de P.
Posted in: French Articles by admin on | No Comments
Au Prairie Swine Centre, des études sont effectuées pour découvrir combien de phosphore contenu dans les rations est tout simplement gaspillé. Les résultats démontrent que près de 70% du phosphore contenu dans la moulée est simplement évacué sans être transformé. Ce phosphore gaspillé se rend habituellement dans les champs mais, heureusement, les sols de la Saskatchewan tendent à être déficitaire en phosphore alors cela ne pose pas de risque environnemental. Cependant, cela ajoute des coûts pour les producteurs de porcs. Ils doivent ajouter du phosphore produit de façon artificielle à leur moulée, ce qui est dispendieux. Les chercheurs au Prairie Swine Centre travaillent sur l’utilisation d’une enzyme qui, lorsqu’elle est ajoutée à la moulée, aide les animaux à digérer le phosphore naturel contenu dans leurs rations. Les résultats de cette étude ont démontré qu’il est possible d’obtenir la même performance en nutrition animale avec cette enzyme sans ajouter de phosphore. En utilisant cet enzyme, les producteurs reçoivent un bénéfice net d’environ $0,33 par porc.
Economic impacts of reduced pork production associated with the diagnosis of Actinobacillus pleuropneumoniae on grower/finisher swine operations in the United States
Posted in: Economics by admin on | No Comments
The purpose of this study was to estimate the economic impacts of reduced pork production associated with the diagnosis
of APP on grower/finisher swine operations, by means of a welfare analysis from the perspective of the US society. As a whole, the swine industry may stand to benefit less from increased pork production (associated with eliminating APP) than consumers. Most of the economic surplus lost by consumers (as a result of reduced pork production associated with APP) was transferred to producers as economic gain. Individual swine producers need to compare the costs of
measures intended to control APP with the anticipated benefits of decreased APP. Uncertainty in the survey-based estimate of the production impact of APP was the greatest
contributing factor to the uncertainty in the estimates of the economic effects of APP.
Results of the sensitivity analysis could propel the design of future surveys of pork
producers.