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:
Biologic Relationships of Birth and Weaning Traits in Pigs
Posted in: Production by admin on January 1, 2001 | No Comments
The objective of the study was to establish the relationships of litter size and pig weight at birth on survival at weaning and weaning weights in nursing pigs. The study consisted of 10,898 pigs from 1,020 litters.The data suggested that uterine space might have been an important factor in litter sizes of 14 or more. There was an inverse relationship between litter size and average piglet birth weight. For each additional pig born in a litter, the average birth weight decreased by 0.083 lb. The data indicated in litters of 9 or more the stillborns tended to be the smaller ones, whereas in small litters of 7 or more pigs, stillborns tend to be the larger ones. The number of pigs weaned per litter was closely related to the number of live pigs born per litter. The relationship was not linear as litter size at birth increased, litter size at weaning also increased but at a diminishing rate. This was most likely due to the fact that cross fostering was not allowed. Average pig weaning weight was inversely related to litter size at birth and at weaning. For each extra pig weaned per litter, there was a decrease in average pig weaning weight of 0.288 lb. For every 0.1 lb extra at birth there was a 0.193 lb increase in weaning weight.The overall survival rate was 84.9%. For a 1.0 lb pig the survival rate was only 12%, but if the pig weighed 3.5 lbs the survival was 92-98%SVC Comments: 1) Pig birthweight is important for survivability (>3.5 lbs. 92-98%). The late term gestating sow needs to have her feed increased to a
Evaluation of solvent-extracted canola meal for growing pigs and lactating sows
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Manure Management in Zero Till Systems
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
A sound manure nutrient management plan requires knowing what is in the manure, availability of nutrients in the soil, manure nutrients and fertilizer to be applied to meet crop nutrient demand, strategy for application, and record keepping and monitoring. A sound long term approach to efficient and environmentally friendly use of manure nutrients is to apply at rates which balance with crop demand and use over time. In the short term, rates of manure appropriate for next year’s crop may be calculated based on the anlysis of the manure content and predicted availability of the manure nutrients to be applied along with a soil test and required rates for individual nutrients as used for application of commercial fertilizer.
With a source of fertilizer such as liquid swine manure in which much of the nitrogen is contained in immediately availbable plant form ammonium, similar to commercial fertilizer the application in late fall or spring is desirable in order to reduce the opportunity for conversion of ammonium to the nitrate form which is more suseptible to leaching and dentrification. To reduce the potential for losses, these manures should be applied as close to the timeof plant nutrient demand as possible. Some challenges are faced in dealing with manure as a fertilizrer and soil amendment, including the inherent variability in manure, its low nutrient content and constrictions in transportation and application technology.
Producing Quality Compost from Livestock Manure
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Composting is the aerobic (oxygen requiring) decomposition of manure or other organic materials in the thermophilic temperature range of 104 a
Effect of supplemental phytase and ideal dietary amino acid ratios in covered and hulless-barley-based diets on pig performance and excretion of phosphorus and nitrogen in manure.
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
A total of 144 (72 barrows + 72 gilts) crossbred pigs were used to determine the effect of feeding supplemental phytase and ideal dietary amino acid ratios in covered barley (CB) or hulless barley (HB)-based diets on growth performance, carcass quality, and excretion of phosphorus and nitrogen in manure during the grower and finisher periods. The three experimental grower and finisher diets were: 1) control diet (CB or HB) with Ca:P ratios according to National Research Council (NAS-NRC 1988), 2) the same as diet 1 but without added inorganic P, but supplemented with phytase (Novo Nordisk, Denmark) at 500 FTU kg-1, 3) the same as diet 2 with reduced dietary protein level, and supplemental amino acids lysine, threonine, and methionine to provide ideal dietary amino acid ratios of 0.70 for threonine to lysine and 0.30 for methionine to lysine. All diets were fed as pellets ad libitum in self-feeders with free access to drinking water. The ADG was not different (P > 0.10) between CB and HB or among the treatment diets during the grower, finisher and combined grower-finisher periods. The gain-to-feed ratios were higher (P < 0.01) for HB than for CB diets. They were also higher (P < 0.05) for diet 3 than for diet 1 during the finisher and combined grower-finisher periods. Carcass index and dressing percent were not different (P > 0.10) among the treatment diets. Supplemental phytase decreased (P < 0.05) the excretion of P during both grower and finisher periods. The combination of phytase and dietary ideal amino acid ratios decreased (P < 0.01) the excretion of both P and N. The ammonia and hydrogen sulphide production in stored liquid manure was not different among the diets.
Effect of Reducing Dietary Protein Level and Adding Amino Acids on Performance and Nitrogen Excretion of Early-Finishing Barrows
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
This study was designed to evaluate the effect of reducing the protein level of late finishing pigs by 4-5% on growth performance, carcass characteristics and N excretion. The results indicate that dietary protein levels and N excretion can be reduced significantly without affecting pig performance when diets are supplemented with lysine, threonine, tryptophan and methionine. From a production standpoint, this means that a producer needs 38.4 % less land to spread his manure on if the nutrient management plan is based on N. However, amino acid levels need to be based on gram/day intake to avoid problems occurring with differences in feed intake causing an amino acid deficiency.
The impact of manure production rights on capital investment in the Dutch pig sector
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Evaluation of the Addition of Commercial Fertilizer to Swine Manure on Transportation Cost, Yield Performance and Nutrient Accumulation
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Based on test plots conducted over the last two years it has been demonstrated that comparable yields can be achieved from an amended manure application versus commercial fertilizer. In year #1 yields from the amended manure exceeded the commercially fertilized plots by 1.1% and 13.4% in AC Barrie and Hyola 401 respectively. Weather related factors did contribute to the significant difference in Hyola yields. In year #2 the yield of Smart canola 46A73 fertilized by amended manure was 3.2% less than the plot commercially fertilized. Similar research conducted by Curtis Cavers of Manitoba Agriculturea