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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:
Effect of Phytase on Production Paramaters and Nutrient Availability in Briolers and Laying Hens: A Review
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2001 | No Comments
An increase in poultry production in recent years has led to a greater use of poultry manure as fertilizer, which has in turn increased the amount of phosphorus runoff from fields fertilized with poultry manure. Phosphorus excretion in poultry manure can lead to water pollution when manure is used as fertilizer. The need to maintain dietary phosphorus levels while redcuing excretion in poultry manure has led to the increase in the application of phytase to poultry feed in recent years. The use of phytase reduces phosphorus excretion in poultry manure by allowing the birds to utilize more of the phytate phosphorus. Phytate phosphorus has the ability to complex with cations such as calcium, magnesium, zinc, copper, and nitrogen and certain gastrointestinal proteases, thus reducing the availability of these cations and of amino acids. The use of phytase may free these cations and proteases bound in phytata phosphorus complexes and improve production parameters and body structure characteristics in broilers and laying hens, such as body weight, bone ash content, feed consumption, egg weight, and eggshell quality.
Environmentally Superior Waste ManagementTechnologies
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Discussions around the environmental concerns in relation to animal waste management, especially the lagoon/spray field technology used in the pork production industry, have led to an Agreement made between the Attorney General of North Carolina and Smithfield Foods, Inc. This agreement was the funding for an a
Construction of a Facility for Lab-Scale Testing of Stored Livestock Manure
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A lab-scale manure testing facility has been constructed. The facility consists of 10 airtight manure storage vessels housed in an environmentally controlled chamber. Airflow to each storage vessel is regulated to control the oxygen level in the stored manure. The headspace gas may be sampled and monitored through a grid of Teflon tubing. Manure samples can also be collected from various manure depths from each vessel. The facility allows for conducting various tests on manure, including the study of odour and greenhouse gas emissions from stored storages, waste breakdown characteristics under various storage conditions, and the effectiveness of different manure management technologies and feeding strategies.
Meeting Manure Odor Head On
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There are a number of existing beneficial management practices livestock producers can now use to potentially reduce manure odor, and many more are currently being researched to evaluate their effectiveness. For most operations, improving odor management requires a combination of several strategies because livestock odor is influenced by many factors, which include: adjusting animal diets; considering the site and facility operations; options for manure storage and treatment; and applying manure to land. This fact sheet deals with what options producers can consider for reducing odor when choosing a site, designing livestock facilities and/or storing and treating manure at those facilities. Furthermore, a number of researchers worldwide are developing and testing many promising technologies for reducing odor. These include the use of oil sprinkling, biofilters, additives and composting. Private and public researchers in North America and Europe are investigating many potential approaches to reduce manure odor, such as electrical and electrochemical processes, ozonation, ultrasound, a membrane filtration system that can handle thick slurries, and resonant shock waves. Research is underway to measure manure quality and odor emissions from livestock operations. It will compare manure treated with various composting methods and raw manure. This research is part of an industry/government odor control initiative to minimize odor emissions from livestock operations. This fact sheet is part of a series on odor and odor reduction for livestock operations from Alberta Agriculture, Food and Rural Development. Copies of the other fact sheets in this series and more information on odor is available at the AAFRD web site at www.agric.gov.ab.ca.
Evaluation and Demonstration of Deads Composting
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Pork Industry Interpretive Centre
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Response to dietary energy concentration and stocking density in weaned pigs
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Understanding the effect of energy intake on growth performance and body composition of pigs is critical for the development of economical feeding strategies. However, Knowledge is limited on the influence of varying amounts of DE content on growth and body composition according to the growth potential of the pig. A study was conducted to examine the effect of increasing dietary digestible (DE) concentration on weaned pig performance at the farm level. Results indicate that higher dietary DE concentration may not improve weaned pig performance.