Inferring pathogen inactivation from the surface temperatures of compost heaps

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2005 | No Comments

Plant Availability of Phosphorus in Swine Slurry and Cattle Feedlot Manure

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Nitrogen Application to Soybean at Early Reproductive Development

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Treatment of pig farm effluents by ultrafiltration

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Finding Value in Alternative Feed Ingredients

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`Mustard Meal
Mustard meal might be a valuable ingredient for the swine industry domestically and internationally. In some export markets, concerns exist regarding the voluntary feed intake of pigs fed mustard instead of canola meal in their diets. This study will therefore compare two diets with either mustard meal or canola meal in the diet at a 15% inclusion rate, which is an inclusion rate that should allow to assess if the feed intake concerns are indeed valid, or not and if growth performance differences exist.

A diet containing 15% canola meal was formulated based on 48% corn, 17% soybean meal and 15% wheat was formulated to 3.45 Mcal DE/kg and 2.60 g apparent digestible lysine/Mcal DE. Replacing canola meal 1:1 with mustard meal created a diet containing 15% mustard meal. The pelleted diets were each fed for 28 days to grower pigs housed 5 pigs per pen.

The standard chemical characteristics of mustard meal and canola meal are listed in Table 1.
For each of the four weeks of the experiment, voluntary or average daily feed intake of the grower pigs increased gradually, and differences in voluntary feed intake were not observed between pigs fed mustard meal or canola meal (Table 2).

For the first three weeks of the experiment, average daily gain and feed efficiency did not differ statistically between pigs fed mustard meal or canola meal (P > 0.10). However, pigs fed mustard meal grew 17% more and had a 6-% unit higher feed efficiency during the last week of the experiment (P < 0.05), resulting in an overall tendency for pigs fed mustard meal to grow faster than pigs fed canola meal. Faba Beans Faba bean (Vicia faba minor) production is not new to western Canada. Research was completed in the early 1970’s; however, tannin and other anti-nutritional factors limited the use faba beans in swine diets. Presently, zero-tannin faba bean varieties are available. The general purpose of this project was to remove barriers, which were preventing increased production and use of zero-tannin faba beans in Alberta, especially in the Parkland and Peace regions. Analysis of the nutrient content of zero-tannin faba beans and a subsequent performance study confirming equal performance were thus needed. Objectives were (1) to determine chemical characteristics, energy and amino acid (AA) digestibility, the content of DE and NE, and tannin content of zero-tannin faba beans; and (2) to compare growth performance variables and carcass quality of grower-finisher pigs fed zero-tannin faba beans to soybean meal.

Financial Impact of Production Research Reveals Benefits are Shared by All

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Saskatoon – Financial benefit is an important part of applied research, and the ability to predict that impact on commercial farms just got better. A new analytical tool developed jointly between Prairie Swine Centre (Saskatoon, SK) and George Morris Centre (Guelph, ON) provides pork producers with one more piece of information to help them determine which new technology is right for their farm.

“The new financial model is capable of considering the cost savings and improvement in revenues achieved by applying our research findings on a commercial farm. The model is capable of simulating the typical financial impact of changing growth rates, lowering feed cost, or even changing capital costs such as replacing the feeders to achieve improved performance” notes Lee Whittington, Manager of Information Services and co-author of the study. “Estimating the financial impact of research on the commercial farm is a key step each farm must go through when adopting a new technology or management technique.”

One very interesting finding of the project is that many of the benefits of improved performance are actually not farm size dependant. Many productivity improvements had as large or greater improvement on net margins on farms of 300 or 600 sows as it did on much larger operations. “When you improve Net Margins on the farm through changes to variable costs such as feed, the impact is actually greatest where costs or overhead per pig is largest, so it is more related to initial feed costs, or building depreciation costs then it is size of operation” according to Ken Engele, Assistant Manager Information Services and co-author on the project. The project identified that improvements in Net Revenues per pig generated by the research conducted during the past six years at Prairie Swine Centre varied from a few cents to tens of dollars per pig.

The Prairie Swine Centre was motivated to develop the model to give pork producers, who help identify and fund research at the Centre, an edge in the international market place by helping to answer the question “its good research but what is the payback for investing in a more complex feeding program for example?” By being better able to describe the financial outcome of adopting new research it moves the decision process on the farm one step closer to adopting the information sooner and thus reaping the benefits months or years earlier than the rest of the pork producing world. “As an exporting nation, finding and maintaining an advantage through reduced costs or improved revenues is critical to the industry’s long-term success” notes Whittington. “Although not every producer can adopt every research report produced by Prairie Swine Centre, selecting which research results will have the most impact on the financial performance of the farm just became more accurate.”

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.

Control and Nitrogen Load Estimation of Aerobic Stage in Full-Scale Sequencing Batch Reactor to Treat Strong Nitrogen Swine Wastewater

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Getting to the Root of Behavior Problems in Newly Weaned Piglets

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The swine industry weans piglets at a far earlier age than nature dictates. This can lead to behavioral problems such as belly nosing and belly sucking, ingesting solid feed at an older age, or drinking excessive amounts of water. Regardless of the quality of diet pigs have difficulty initiating solid feed intake when weaned at a young age. Belly nosing involves rooting at the udder of pen-mates and can persist even through to the finisher stage. Piglets that grow faster vs. slower will perform less belly nosing while weaning weight is not a determinant of future belly nosing. Piglet hunger does not seem to be a stimulant for belly nosing, but possibly stimulates nosing and rooting at the floors. Sensory cues are important for piglets (e.g. – sow auditory signal of milk let-down) and researchers have found that playing an audio feedback of a sow grunt can result in higher average daily gain for piglets weaned at 15 days. Administration of sow pheromones (which is an olfactory cue) in a nursery pen can result in more time at the feeder (done with 18 day weaning). Feeding piglets with a nipple-based feeder also appears to significantly reduce incidence of pen-mate directed nosing or sucking. However, nipple drinkers as opposed to trough drinkers tend to increase the incidence of belly nosing. Therefore, the early-weaned piglets tend to nurse on water nipples, thereby filling their guts and reducing feed intake.

The development of feather pecking in brumese red junglefowl: the influence of early experience with exploratory-rich environments.

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This study examines the development of feather pecking and its relationship to exploration in Burmese red junglefowl. Ten groups of four chicks each were raised from hatching on wire mesh floors (home pen). Two of the four chicks in each group received experience in exploratory-rich environments four times a week for 5 weeks, and the other two chicks remained in the home pen. Observations conducted in the home pen revealed that chicks deprived of experience in exploratory-rich-environments performed significantly more gentle feather pecking, and tended to show more severe feather pecking than the experienced birds. Experience in the exploratory-rich-environments did not affect the frequency of environmental pecking or food pecking. These results suggest that chicks deprived of exploratory-rich environments may come to perceive pen mates as appropriate exploratory stimuli and subsequently direct exploratory behaviour toward conspecifics. This tendency to peck pen mates may lead to the development of feather pecking. We suggest that forceful pecks may be reinforcing, and that the more likely pecks are directed to a conspecific, the more likely feather pecking will develop.

Environmental and management factors affecting the welfare of chickens on commercial farms in the United Kingdom and Denmark stocked at five densities

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Data was collected on temperature and humidity profiles throughout the growth cycle, management practices and equipment that contributed toe variation in environmental conditions and how bird welfare was affected by environmental variables for different stocking densities (30, 34, 38, 42, and 46 kg/m2. Broiler health and welfare varied the most when the house temperature and relative humidity was maintained within limits recommended by the breeder company. During the first week of life, relative humidity was found to be very important for later health. This suggests that welfare may improve if there is better control of humidity. Welfare was also influenced by ventilation and air control, type of drinker, numbers of stockpersons and litter type. In summary, controlling environmental variables, such as temperature, humidity, air and litter quality, is very important for ensuring broiler welfare. Stocking density is also important, but the environmental variables also have to be considered if stocking density is lowered. To maximize bird welfare, standards need to be set for stocking density, environmental variables, and the genetic makeup of the birds.