Nutrition Research Program

Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 2000 | No Comments

The nutrition program at Prairie Swine Centre is focused on practical approaches to meet three primary objectives; improving net income for pork producers, optimizing the use of locally available feed ingredients and in enhancing the sustainability of the pork industry. In order to improve net income for producers, feeding programs must be matched to meet overall farm objectives. Overfeeding wastes money and underfeeding impairs performance of the animals. For the past few years, research at the Prairie Swine Centre has focused on defining requirements for essential amino acids. Using a factorial approach, results from this research can be easily applied and suited to specific pork farms. A more recent focus of research has been on uniformity. Although there has been lots of discussion on uniformity, there is little knowledge of factors affecting uniformity and whether or not decisions made by producers can have any impact.
The use of local ingredients is not currently optimized by the pork industry. The main issue concerning these ingredients is variability of nutrient content. The focus of research has been on DE because with least cost ration formulation, the greatest pressure is on available energy. The objective of ingredient research is to identify chemical or physical properties related to changes in nutrient content, which can then be used to predict actual nutrient content.
To ensure that our pork industry remains environmentally sustainable, pork production must evolve with environment issues in mind. Research continues to seek to reduce nutrient excretion in slurry, reduce gas emissions into the air and minimize total water usage. One possibility of reducing total nitrogen excretions is in feeding fermentable carbohydrates, as this causes as much nitrogen as possible to be excreted in faeces rather than urine. The nutrition research program continues to focus on practical approaches for meeting the primary objectives.

Influence of hog manure application on water quality and soil productivity

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Hog manure has been known to be a valuable source of nutrients but little has been documented about the environmental impacts of organic fertilizers on ecosystems of semi-arid to sub-humid ecosystems. This study addresses manure management on croplands as well, the environmental and health concerns with the use of hog manure as a fertilizer. The objectives were to measure the presence and potential pollutants in soils, runoff waters and shallow ground water as well as to provide recommendations to prevent the accumulation of environmental or health related pollutants. The entire experiment is to take six years. Parameters measured are dissolved solids, total nitrogen, total phosphorus, carbon, heavy metals and coliform bacteria. The project was started in 1998 and is underway. The baseline soil and water data at the Perdue site was collected during the fall of 1998 and fall 1999, and the first manure application was October 1999. Post application data has been taking place and preliminary results are expected to be evaluated in spring 2001. Baseline data has been collected at the Elstow site and the first manure application is expected to take place in the fall of 2001.

Air contamination in poultry production systems.

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Positive human health effects of wearing a respirator in a swine barn

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respirator, health, nasal

Potential for Evaporative Cooling during Heat Stress Periods in Pig Production in Portugal (Alentejo)

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Do windbreaks minimize stress on cattle grazing foothill winter range?

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Grazing native rangeland can help lower costs of wintering livestock in northern climates. However, extreme cold and wind negatively affect an animal’s thermal balance, increasing energy demand when nutritive value of the forage is low. In a 2 year study, the authors determined whether exposure to winter wind elicits a stress response in pregnant cows (5 – 7 year old) grazing a foothill rangeland. They measured several indicators of stress-response of cows which had (windbreak) or did not have (non-windbreak) access to windbreaks. In winter 1, backfat thickness increased on windbreak and non-windbreak cattle. Body condition scores of both groups were lower at the end of the trial. In winter 2, backfat thickness decreased for windbreak and non-windbreak cattle. Body condition score did not change. Changes in backfat thickness indicate that cattle in winter 1 were catabolizing more lean muscle tissue, whereas cattle in winter 2 were catabolizing more fat. Cattle in access to windbreaks tended to have a stronger cell-mediated immune response than non-windbreak cattle. Birth and weaning weights of calves, and calving interval were similar for windbreak and non-windbreak cattle. Windbreaks were of minimal benefit to cattle grazing our foothill range site. Differences between windbreak and non-windbreak cattle were subtle, primarily reflected in slight differences in immune response and in backfat thickness.

The effect of early age feed restriction on subsequent response to high environmental temperatures in female broiler chickens

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Chicks were assigned to one of four feeding regimens; 1) ad libitum feeding, 2) 40 % feed restriction at 4, 5, and 6 days of age, 3) 60 % feed restriction at 4, 5, and 6 days of age, and 4) 80 % feed restriction at 4, 5, and 6 days of age. From 35 to 41 days of age, the birds were all exposed to 38 A

QUANTIFYING FACTORS AFFECTING SIDEWALL AIR INLET PERFORMANCE

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Consolidation in U.S. Meatpacking

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USING SOIL ATTRIBUTES AND GIS FOR INTERPRETATION OF SPATIAL VARIABILITY IN YIELD

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