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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:
Herbage Yield and Crude Protein Concentration of Rangeland and Pasture following Hog Manure Application in Southeastern Alberta
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2004 | No Comments
How can I Control Hydrogen Sulphide in my Barn?
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Hydrogen sulphide (H2S) is a life threatening gas produced by the anaerobic breakdown of liquid manure. H2S can be released while performing common tasks that involve manure flow or mixing. Short and long-term effects of exposure can have impacts on the health and well being of the exposed person. 100-ppm exposure is immediately dangerous to life or health. Pit pulling can generate up to 1000 ppm. Research is being done to improve building design and manure management systems to minimize H2S exposure in hog barns. The goal is to develop low cost systems that will prevent or reduce worker exposure to high H2S concentration during pit pulling. The first stage is to develop a pit pulling system to allow plugs to be pled from a remote location and prevents backflow of manure or gases when the plugs are put back in. The second stage is to determine reduction of H2S gas when tap water is sprinkled. The third stage is to design and develop a pit scraper system to remove swine manure from the barn on a daily basis and to evaluate the reduction of H2S. A pit puller system has already been developed that is low cost, easy to install/use, and is safe. This system involves a winch in the hallway to mechanically pull the plugs from outside the room. A laboratory apparatus was designed to simulate H2S peak concentrations observed during pit pulling events in barns. This was put in a tank, which was equipped with a nozzle port to spray water solution while the H2S was injected. At this time, both the remote puller and the sprinkling systems look promising to control the H2S exposure of workers at a low cost.
Nitrogen Cycling through Swine Production Systems: Ammonia,
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Absorption of artificial piggery effluent by soil: A laboratory study
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Social Factors that Affect Injury Levels and the Behaviour of Sows Regrouped into an Electronic Sow Feeder System
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Summary
The total number of injuries detectable on sows increased until 28 days after regrouping before declining. First parity sows and post-implantation sows ate later in the feeding cycle, while first parity sows and unfamiliar sows rested in the less optimal areas of the pens. Thus, the behaviour of older, familiar and pre-implantation sows indicates that they are experiencing less stress during regrouping.
Introduction
Regrouping is a stressful time for pigs. When sows are regrouped shortly after breeding, stress may alter behaviours and result in a decrease in farrowing rate. The severity of the stress the sows are experiencing can be reflected in injuries, eating order and resting locations. The goal of this study was to determine the effect that stage of implantation, familiarity with penmates, and parity have on the behaviour.
Effects of wheat quality and xylanase supplementation on weaned pigs
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
The feed processing procedure xylanase supplementation was tested to reduce the existing variability in wheat quality. Xylanase enzyme supplementation partially reduced the variation in performance of weaned pigs caused by wheat sample.
Decision support system with semantic model to assess the risk of tail biting in pigs 1. Modelling.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Tail biting is a behavioural problem with both welfare and economic consequences. Various conditions that may contribute to tail biting have been identified in a number of research reports. This paper examined those reports and extracted these causative factors. A weighting factor was developed for each of these contributing conditions, and a model developed to estimate the risk of tail biting in any housing/management system. The contributing factors, ranked from those most to least likely to affect tail biting were: tail docking, diet, substrate, weaning environment, sex, weight or age, food related agonism, growth retardation, worms, space per pig, trichinosis, heat, season, floor type, ventilation type, feed moisture, feeding synchrony, group size, feeding automation, time of day, tail injury, coldness, water provision, breed, herd size, light, air quality and group stability. The model can be upgraded as new information becomes available.