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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:
Large Group Penning: Does it Really Work?
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
Large group penning in finishing barns have three main economic advantages; reduction of labour costs, higher percentage of hogs in the target weight zone, and increased utilization of space. Large group pens contain a large group of pigs that need to enter a food court to eat and drink and must pass through a sorter based on weight. It is a response to the stress and labour intensive method of individual weighing. An example of a typical large group finisher operation is an 8000 head barn; 8 rooms of 1000 pigs each with totally slatted floors. The pens were roughly 200 feet by 40 feet, requiring 2 sorters per room. The food court is accessed 2 to 3 times per day (there should be enough space so pigs can go in for as long as they wish). The feeders should not be overcrowded, but there should not be too much space that they create a sleeping area next to the entrance and block pig flow. When it comes to load-out, the pigs that have reached market weight were sorted into a separate area of the penning. This section requires a separate feeding area as well, which can add complications. Equipment needed for all of this includes a sorter and scale, one-way gates, and an air compressor. When pigs are first introduced into this system there will be minimal fighting which is advantageous for growth. Health checking is a different process because of the size of groups. Hospital pens should be created to minimize disease and manage withdrawal times before market. The size of the group also helps to prevent the hierarchy that pigs develop. It is much more difficult in a pen of 1000 pigs for the “boss hog” to be crowned. This makes mixing and loading of animals much, much easier. Training is generally accomplished by an open-door food court for the first 3 days and then gradually restricting the flow. The sorter should only be activated once it appears that market weights are going to begin being reached. This is great for reducing labour and stress on both the animals and the workers. There are also advantages over the mortality and average daily gain/feed conversion. Time is saved in power washing due to less partitioning/wall space (time per room can be reduce by a half or even a third!). Economically, the conversion costs roughly $20,000 per 1000 pigs. There are huge annual savings from fewer employees required and an increase in the number of pigs processed through the barn.
Managing Large Group Grow-Finisher Pigs
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Peace Pork Inc. installed over 50 automatic sorters in finishing barns. 16 were fully slatted and the rest were partially slatted. They operate two 8000 head finishing barns by a single crew of 4 people. The crew was weighing and shipping pigs constantly. This brought about the idea of these large group auto-sorting systems. The economic advantages include reduction of labour costs, higher percentage of hogs in the target weight zone, and increased utilization of barn space. By adopting the innovation of group housing and sorters, Peace Pork has learned that the technology is a great tool to address one of the biggest problems facing pig producers, which is attracting and maintaining quality staff. Large group grow-finish pigs allow for a working environment that is easier, safer, and involves less stress. Sorting, shipping, and improving target weights are much easier to obtain with this system and pigs are happier in a better social environment. There is an excellent payback period for investment due to improved volume of pigs, savings in labour, and higher packer returns.
The causes of seasonal variation in backfat thickness of pigs in Western Australia
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Sesign of a Manure Handling System for an Air Quality Laboratory in a Swine Barn
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Two manure handling systems are currently being tested to determine which system best eliminates all manure contamination from the air in an air qaulity laboratory. Two systems inlcude a washing gutter and a inclined conveyor belt. Both systems can beadjusted to run at various frequencies and are currently being tested to find out how often they need to run to eliminate contamination from the manure. Once the manure handling systems have been optimized to produce minimum contaimination from the manure further testing will be done on other sources of contaminants.
Managing Residue With Manure Application
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To meet conservation compliance requirements, a standard of at least 30% residue cover must remain on the soil surface after planting. The type of manure application equipment used can significantly affect the amount of residue cover remaining on soil surface. In this study, residue cover was estimated after the application of liquid manure at four different rates with three different types of manure applicators.
The type of application equipment also had a significant impact on the amount of residue remaining after manure application. Disc-covered manure applicators were more aggressive in overturning soil and residue to cover the applied manure. The shovel incorporator had more visible disturbance due to the shovel mixing of the applied manure with the soil. On the other hand, the slot injector was less disruptive to surface residue because it applies the manure below the soil surface. The rate of manure application had a relatively smaller impact on corn and soybean surface residue cover. However, the rate of manure application can impact residue cover depending on the types of both the manure applicator and crop residue.
Effective manure application and residue management can be combined to improve both soil productivity and environmental quality. The slot injector applicator disturbed the minimum amount of soybean surface residue while applying manure at high rates. Under corn residue, the disc-covered manure applicator left more than 30% residue cover, therefore meeting conservation compliance requirements.
MODIFICATION AND USE OF DRAINMOD TO EVALUATE A LAGOON EFFLUENT LAND APPLICATION SYSTEM
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