Pilot Implementation Study for Environmental Management System Standard Concludes

Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2003 | No Comments

A pilot implementation study designed to help fine tune a proposed environmental management system standard for Canadian hog operations has been completed and is now under review. The Canadian Pork Council (CPC) completed an initial study that analyzed the strengths and weaknesses associated with developing, adopting or adapting and environmental management system-based program. They developed a standard in draft form that outlines requirements in areas such as policy, planning, implementation, checking and corrective action. They should also identify their adverse environmental impacts and develop plans reduce and manage them to comply with the standard.
The pilot study has 12 hog operations attempting to implement the draft standard that was created. These operations had to determine what regulations they have to adhere to in operating their farms on a daily basis, identify the activities that occur within their operations that might have an adverse impact on the environment and put together a plan to mitigate those adverse effects. Third party auditors then went out to these operations to assess the standard’s affordability, operational feasibility, and auditability. The goal is to have the standard be as realistic and user-friendly as possible and to improve the standard before final release to the marketplace.
The benefits that could be realized from the environmental management system standards includes 1) the reduction of operator’s adverse impacts of the environment; 2) the improvement of operator’s efficiency through reduced resource use and waste generation; and 3) the improvement of the operator’s market access and competitiveness by promoting environmentally friendly products.

Simulation and Validation of the Evaporation of Water from Liquid Manure using Ventilation Exhaust Air: linking of two Simulation Models

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The pig production needs to be modified into a sustainable system. Handling of the manure and reducing
emissions have to be taken into account in the design of pig facilities, so the called integrated pig facilities are being developed in which the energy in the exhaust air can be used to evaporate water fromliquid manure. The objective of this research was to link an existing dynamic simulation model for indoor climate calculation to a newly developed simulation model for manure evaporation, allowing annualised calculation of evaporation. The physical processes that occur in the liquid manure evaporator were described in a dynamic simulation model. This model was validated with experiments carried out in a laboratory facility. This model underestimated the evaporation with an average of 15
4%. Some explanations were given. Model calculation of the evaporation at annual basis shows that per fattening pig place 0
38 to 0
41m3 liquid manure per year can be evaporated. To increase the evaporation level, thermal energy can be added. The linking of two simulation models was successful. The liquid manure drying simulation model can be used to gain insight in the possibilities of using a manure drying technique under a variety of circumstances, and to design practical installations and to optimise the drying process.

Literature review: the physical properties of compost

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INFLUENCE OF ASH AMENDMENT ON ODOR EMISSIONS AND AEROBIC BIODEGRADATION OF BIOSOLIDS MIXES

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Estimating Ammonia Volatilization from Swine-Effluent Droplets in Sprinkle Irrigation

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TopCross High Oil Corn Production: Select Grain Quality Attributes

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Large Groups for Grower-Finisher Pigs: Impacts on Pig Productivity

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The “large group” concept for pigs is gradually being adopted in North America. Housing grower-finisher pigs in large groups of 50-500 pigs/pen compared to conventional group sizes of 10-40 pigs/pen has the possibility to reduce housing costs and may also simplify some aspects of management. Large group pens prove to be economically attractive to pork producers. However, there is the concern that the social instability of pigs in large groups may lead to poorer growth rates, increased mortality and morbidity, and higher variation in body weights at the end of the production cycle. The goal of this study was to compare production performance of grow-finish pigs housed in large groups (108 pigs/pen) to those housed in conventional groups (18 pigs/pen). It has been suggested that there may be higher levels of undesirable vices such as tail biting, or higher incidence of diseases and mortalities with the formation of pigs into larger groups. However, results from this study do not support this suggestion as similar numbers of pigs were removed from both pen sizes throughout the course of the trial. Pigs housed in the large groups had a lower ADG (2%) than the smaller groups, but there were no significant differences in ADFI and feed efficiency among the two group sizes. Carcass measurements indicated no detrimental effects of either group size. Overall, results indicate that performance in the large groups were not inferior to the smaller groups evaluated in this study.

Electronic sow feeder: A preliminary report

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The housing of gestating sows as proven to be one of the more controversial topics of pig production. Four major group-housing systems are available to replace the conventional gestation stalls, all of which have different management options. The PSC Elstow Research Farm has chosen to use the electronic sow feeder (ESF) system as a group system, and is examining a number of management options within this system. Half of the 600-sow herd is housed in the group housing system with ESF on partially slatted floors while the other half are housed in gestation stalls. The four aspects being compared are productivity and behaviour of gilts and sows of different parities, relative benefits of grouping animals shortly after breeding or after implantation and its interaction with parity, the management of animals in static and large dynamic groups and all electronic sow feeder groups are compared with animals managed in conventional stalls. Preliminary results have shown that younger animals tend to perform better in stalls, while older sows do better in the ESF system. “Add ins” or post implantation animals performed better than those grouped shortly after breeding. Older animals performed better in static programs, while gilts did better in dynamic programs. Overall, the stall system outperformed the ESF; however, this was not the case for the ESF management programs. As this study continues, behavioural and physiological observations will be included.

The influence of adverse or gentle handling procedures on sexual behaviour in fearful and confident sows.

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This experiment examined if sows’ fearfulness of humans can inhibit sexual behaviour when humans are or are not present. Also, the effects that adverse versus gentle handling may have on the sexual behaviour of sows was examined. During the third week of lactation forty-eight sows were classified as confident or fearful of humans based on a forced three-step human approach. Six days prior to weaning and until the termination of oestrus, sows were either handled adversely or gently twice daily. At weaning, a human approach test was conducted in the sows’ home pen and in a novel arena. Three days after weaning until the end of oestrus a T-maze test was conducted to examine proceptive behaviour with and without the handler being present. The sows were monitored for standing heat during the T-maze test, in her home stall and trans-rectal ultrasonogram was conducted to ensure ovulation did take place. Whether the sow was confident, fearful, gently or adversely handled, all sows came into heat. In the human approach test, regardless of whether the sow was fearful or confident, adverse handling made the sows more fearful of humans. There was a tendency for fearful sows adversely handled to be more fearful of humans than a confident sow adversely handled. In the T-test conducted before the onset of oestrus, adversely handled sows spent less time standing near the boar pen when the handler was present. The presence of the handler had a similar effect on fearful sows. The opposite reaction to the handler was seen in gently handled or confident sows. During oestrus, fearful adversely handled sows spent significantly less time standing near the boar pen when the handler was present. All other sows spent similar amounts of time close to the boar pen regardless of whether the handler was present or not. This illustrates that fearful sows handled gently can overcome their fear of humans during oestrus.

Decreasing aggression with increasing group size in young domestic fowl.

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The overall objective of this study was to look at the social strategy of domestic fowl living in larger groups use in commercial production systems. The aggressive behaviour of white leghorn female chickens was observed in groups of 15, 30, 60 and 120 in 3, 6, 12 and 24m2 at a constant density of 5 birds/m2. Focal observations of 12 birds per group were carried out from 3 to 18 weeks of age. At all group sizes, aggressive pecking peaked between 6 and 12 weeks and then declined. Regression analysis on means across all ages showed a linear reduction in the frequency of pecks and threats given per focal bird with increasing group size. However, the frequency of pecks and threats received per focal bird showed the opposite pattern, being higher in larger than smaller groups. There was evidence that birds’ to adapt different social strategies with increasing group size. It could be speculated that, while the majority of birds may adapt a tolerant strategy in larger groups, a minority may be despotic, directing aggression indiscriminately towards other birds.