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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:
Effects of space allowance during transport and duration of mid-journey lairage period on the physiological, behavioural and immunological responses of young calves during and after transport.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 2001 | No Comments
To determine the effect of space allowance during transport, a well as, the effect of varying length of lairage part way through transport were examined by measuring stress levels, injury, incidence of dehydration, effect of food restriction and rest of young calves during and following transportation. The calves were transported twice for nine hours, with a 1 or 12h lairage period between the two trips. The space allowances during transport were either 0.375 or 0.475 m2 per calf. The control calves, which were not transported, were fed milk replacer and were also provided with water either at the normal times or only when the calves were given these fluids during transport. Calves that were transported spent significantly less time lying down and had significantly higher cortisol concentrations than the control calves. Increasing the amount of space available per calf did not result in an increased incidence of injuries and or the calves were still able to keep their balance. A lairage period of one hour provided enough time to feed the calves milk replacer, but did not given the calves much of an opportunity to rest. The duration of the lairage period midway through transportation did not have an effect on any of the measurements taken and the shorter lairage time did not appear to negatively affect welfare. Even though there was not any difference in the immune system measurements between the transport and control calves, transportation appeared to negatively affect the health status of the calves.
Effect of milkflow rate and presence of a floating nipple on abnormal sucking between dairy calves.
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On most of the conventional dairy-farms in Sweden calves are separated from the cows immediately after birth and put individually in pens. They are usually fed milk replacer instead of the mothers milk. Most of the calves are not allowed to suck when ingesting their milk, instead they have to learn to drink from an open bucket. Studies have shown that problems occur when calves are housed together. The calves suck on each others ears, mouth, prepuce, scrotum, naval and other body parts, and this has been observed primarily among calves that are bucket fed. The aim of this study was to investigate if access to an artificial teat compared to an open bucket would decrease abnormal sucking in calves held in pairs, and if the calves would perform less abnormal sucking if they spent more time drinking or sucking the milk. In total 16 calves of Swedish Red and White cattle housed in pairs were used. The eight groups were given 2.5 l of whole milk per calf, twice a day in one of the following treatments; bucket with fast flow (control), bucket with slow flow, floating nipple with fast flow and floating nipple with slow flow. All groups were subjected to the four different treatments in a random balanced order. Two buckets were connected with a rubber pipe in order to control the milk flow. In the fast treatments, the milk poured from one bucket to the other in 40 s, and in the slow treatments the milk poured from one bucket to the other in 10 min. Each group had the treatment for 6 days before behavioural observations were done on day7. These were made by instantaneous recordings at 20 s intervals for 30 min, starting when the calves received their milk in the morning and afternoon. The number of recordings of abnormal sucking was lower than the control in all treatments. The lowest recording of abnormal sucking was found, when the calves had both a floating nipple and a slow flow. Sucking on other objects in the pen had the highest number of recordings, when they had a nipple and a fast flow, but the sucking on the empty nipple represented 95% of this category. The calves tended to lick and bite more on the bucket, the nipple and pen fittings in the two treatments with fast flow than in the slow treatment with nipple. It is concluded that both the performance of sucking and the time taken to ingest milk are important in order to decrease abnormal sucking between calves. In order to reduce abnormal sucking dairy calves should be allowed to suck the milk and the milk flow should be so low that the motivation to suck has vanished when the milk is finished.
A note on the effects of forward and rear-facing orientations on movement of horses during transport.
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Horses remain standing during transport and must maintain their balance during changes in velocity and direction. The result is that the animal frequently shifts its weight or moves slightly as the vehicle is in motion. It has been suggested that horses are better able to maintain their balance if they are facing backward, away from the direction of movement, in the vehicle. This study transported horses around a 14.4 km course that involved slowing, speeding up, stopping, various turns, and highway bumps. Twelve horses were transported, and each was tested in both a forward and rear-facing orientation. The animals were videotaped to determine the distance they moved in order to maintain balance. There was considerable variation in the amount of movement observed in each horse, ranging from 5 to 35 m. However, neither of the orientations resulted in a consistently larger or smaller amount of movement. It is concluded that orientation does not affect the horses’ ability to maintain balance during transport.
Toxicity of Ozonated Animal Manure to the House Fly, Musca domestica
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An Economic Analysis of the Returns to Canadian Swine Research: 1974a
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This paper reports a new set of estimates of the returns to swine research in Canada. These estimates
are obtained using Agriculture and Agri-Food Canadaa
Liquid Manure Techniques to Minimize Odours
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This paper focused on evaluation of existing liquid manure application methods and equipment from an odour-related perspective. Requirements for liquid manure injection and how to select injectors and the operation parameters were also addressed. Odour levels associated with land application of liquid manure are not directly related to the
application method. That manure injection provides lower odour level than surface application is not necessarily true in some injection cases where excessive manure is exposed to the air as a result of poor injection operation or the use of an inappropriate injector. Odour levels are directly determined by the amount of manure exposed to the air and the surface area covered with exposed manure, if other conditions are the same. Injection may not reduce odour to a background level (equivalent to odour over an unmanured soil surface), even it is properly done. Odour concentration at the ground level following manure injection varies from approximately
double 18 times higher than the background value, depending on the extent of manure exposure.
The primary criterion for selecting an injector should be based on the tool capacity that must be sufficient in order to minimize exposed manure, and consequently odours. Other criteria should be also considered, such as the hose power requirement and manure distribution in soil. In grassland application, minimum soil disturbance is also an important criterion. The performance of an injector on these perspectives is not only affected by tool type, but also by injection depth and other factors. Generally, manure application to grassland was feasible using low-disturbance injection, infiltration enhancement, surface banding and sub-canopy application methods, in terms of grass
production. However, there is the potential for odour if excessive overflow-manure occurs.
Variability in Compostion of Manure Over the Pump Out Cycle of Several Hog Manure Stores in Manitoba
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Hog manure is recognized as a valuable resource, largely because the N it contains is mostly in the form of NH4-N. This binds to soil and is less prone to leaching to groundwater than NO3-N. Nevertheless, monitoring nutrient loading to land reliably is more difficult with manure than with inorganic fertilizer. Manure is variable in composition from one store to another, and difficult to maintain in a homogeneous state due to settling of particulate material. Few data exist on the variability in composition of hog manure during application to land. For a study of the feasibility of analyzing hog manure rapidly with near-infrared spectroscopy, 121 manure samples were collected from 13 hog operations in the vicinity of Winnipeg MB between 28 September and 4 November 2000. All but two of these operations held the manure in
earthen stores, one had a slurry store and a secondary lagoon, and one had above ground storage. Six of the operations were visited once and seven were visited from two to seven times during pump-out from agitated lagoons. Several of these were visited at the start and finish of pump-out, as well as periodically in between. At most sites, a pail was filled from the drop-out valve on the umbilicus during actual field application. The manure in the pail was well-stirred and four 1-L subsamples were taken immediately after one another in polyethylene bottles. Samples were analyzed by the Freshwater Institute Analytical Laboratory for pH, conductivity, density, ammonium-nitrogen (NH4-N), total dissolved nitrogen (TDN), particulate nitrogen, dissolved phosphorus (dissolved P), particulate P, and particulate carbon (particulate C, i.e., a
measure of the particular organic matter). Eighty of the 121 samples of manure were analyzed for 31 metals and minor elements by inductively coupled plasma spectrometry, and for % moisture by Norwest Labs. Some or all of the values for Ag, As, Bi, Pb, Sb, Se, Sn, Ti and V were below the limits of detection for the method. These are not considered further here.