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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:
Biofilters for Odor Control
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 2000 | No Comments
Biofiltration has been adapted for use on livestock farms and can reduce odour and hydrogen sulfide emissions by as much as 95% and ammonia emissions by up to 80%. Biofilters are simply a bed of organic material, typically a mixture of compost and wood chips, which are about 10-18 inches deep. As air passes through the biofilter, the microbes on the organic material convert odorous gases to carbon dioxide and water. The effectiveness of this system depends on the time the air spends in and the moisture content of the biofilter. A typical biofilter require 50-85 square feet per 1000 cubic feet/minute (cfm) of airflow. Construction costs range from $100-150. 1000 cfm. Operation and management costs are around $3.00/1000 cfm/ year.
Biofilters can be used in mechanically ventilated building, where an exhaust fan must be attached to an air duct to bring air into the biofilter. They can also be used in naturally ventilated buildings. In these, air that is exhausted through the pit fans passes through the biofilter but air that does not go through the pit fans does not reach the system. This means that in cold weather, when pit fans are being used, biofilters are 95% effective but in warm weather, other ventilation systems are used and therefore the biofilter does very little. A final area in which biofilters can be used is in covered manure storage. If it is covered with an impermeable layer then a ventilation system is put into place and a biofilter can clean up this vented air.
Response of Growing-Finishing Pigs to Increases in Energy Levels – Poster
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
Digestibility of energy and amino acids in high-oil corn
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
High-oil corn is used as a source of nutrients, especially energy, to meet requirement of pigs. In the present study, DE content and digestibility of energy and amino acids of high-oil corn was characterized and related to chemical characteristics. The DD content of high-oil corn was 5% higher than regular corn. Corn DE content could be predicted using gross energy (GE) or oil content. High oil corn is clearly a source with a high DE content.
Recent developments in stunning of poultry.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Play behaviour in group housed dairy calves, the effect of space allowance.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Under natural or semi-natural conditions, play in calves is typically seen in a social context either as locomotor play or play fighting. Play behaviour has been suggested to be an indicator of good welfare in wild as well as captive juveniles and has been used to assess welfare in different farm environments. In dairy calves kept in pens, lack of sufficient space may inhibit the performance of play behaviour. The present study investigated, firstly, if an increase in space allowance increases the occurrence of play behaviour, and secondly, if calves kept at a low space allowance perform more locomotory play when released individually in a large novel area. A total of 96 dairy calves in six repetitions were housed in groups of four, in pens of either 4, 3, 2.2 or 1.5 m2 per calf from 2 weeks of age. The occurrence of play behaviour in the home environment was recorded continuously for each individual calf during 24 h at 5, 7 and 9 weeks of age. Locomotor play decreased over the weeks (54, 29 and 19 s for weeks 5, 7 and 9 respectively). At 5 weeks of age, calves kept at 4 or 3 m2 per calf performed more locomotor play in the home environment than calves kept at 2.2 or 1.5 m2 per calf. However at 7 and 9 weeks of age no effects of space allowance was found. In addition, the duration of locomotor play was recorded for all calves during an individual 10-min open-field test at 4 and 10 weeks of age. During the open-field test at 10 weeks of age, calves from pens with 1.5 m2 per calf performed more locomotory play than calves on the remaining space allowance treatments. The present study shows that an increase in the available space increases the occurrence of locomotor play in the home environment at 5 weeks of age. It also shows that calves kept in pens with the smallest space allowance performed more locomotor play behaviour when released in a large arena at 10 weeks of age. In summary, an effect of space allowance on early locomotor play was found in calves kept in groups. Under the hypothesis that performance of play associated with positive feelings, increasing space above the minimum requirement of 1.5 m2 per calf to 3.0 m2 per calf in pens with four calves is of significance to the welfare of the animals.