Maximum loading density of loose horses.

Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 1999 | No Comments

Turkeys prefer fluorescent light with supplementary ultraviolet radiation.

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Poor rearing conditions and social stress in pigs: repeated social challenge and the effect on behavioural and physiological responses to stressors.

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Rearing environment may potentially have an impact on pig’s responses to stress. To determine the effects of rearing environment on pigs, the behavioural and physiological responses to various stressors were compared between female pigs raised in a standard farrowing crate (poor) or in a group of free-ranging sows with her piglets (enriched). When the pigs reached 14-17 weeks-of-age, their behaviour was analyzed in multiple social confrontations (an intruder pig was introduced to a resident’s home pen). When the pigs reached adult age (between 38-45 weeks old) they were behaviours were analyzed when they received an electric shock, presented with a novel object and more resident/intruder tests. The level of injuries sustained and the changes in salivary cortisol were recorded before and after the resident intruder test. Salivary cortisol samples were also taken before and after the pigs underwent the electric shock test. The results found demonstrable differences in aggressive behaviour between residents and intruders, but this was only seen in pigs raised in the enriched environment. Pigs reared in the poor environment inflicted more lesions on one another in the social encounter tests. These results indicate that raising pigs in a poor environment may negatively impact the development of the pigs’ social skills, which would lead to difficulties in establishing a dominance hierarchy, as seen in this study. The negative effects of a poor rearing environment when the pigs are young lasts into adulthood based on their reactions to electric shock, a novel object and resident/intruder tests. Therefore, pigs behaviour can be shaped by the rearing environment and those raised in an enriched environment demonstrated more avoidance behaviours, which is useful in social and non-social encounters.

Monitoring Pig Growth using a Prototype Imaging System

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Treatment of Liquid Effluents from Dairy Cattle and Pigs using Reverse Osmosis

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Fecal Bacteria Contamination of Surface Waters Associated with Land Application of Animal Waste

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Effectiveness of Three Manure Pit Additives

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Pit additives on the market offer solutions for the problem of odour nuisance from pig barns. They are also intended to improve manure characteristics such as handling ease, pit gas reduction, nutrient retention ans waste strength. Most of the scientific testing in this area has been completed ina laboratory or on a bench scale. To truly evaluate the effectiveness of such products in conditions duplicating most commercial barn situations, a protocol was developed. The objective of this experiment was to evaluate the effectiveness of manure pit additives in reducing odour threshold and gas concentrations above the manure surface, in reducing solids and manure strength, and maintaining nutrient and micro-nutrient content in the manure, for commercial-scale manure pits and simulated earthen manure storages.

The Harmonizing or Rural Buildings with the Landscape: Vegetation as the Tool of Integration

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Vegetation elements or screens rae one way of improving the visual quality of any rural landscape. Coming under public scrutiny, a postive looking or creative lanscape is one way of diminishing the negative impacts of intensive livestock operations. A structured landscape aroud any unit will decrease negative association with the intensive livestock unit.

Biofilter Demonstration

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The objective of this report is to demonstrate the effectiveness of biofilters to reduce odour, hydrogen sulfide and ammonia emissions from livestock facilities and manure storages using low cost biofilters with different designs, media, operating conditions and management.
The performance of twelve biofilters with different residence times (approximately 4,7 and 13 s) was measured on a dairy, swine and poultry facility. Residence times are defined as the time the air is in contact with the biofilter media.
Odour and hydrogen sulfide reduction improved from 56% to 94% as residence times increased from 4 to 7 s for the dairy and swine. Percent reduction remained about 89% as residence time increased from 7 to 13 s on the dairy and swine. A 5 s residence time is recommended for designing biofilters on swine and dairy facilities to achieve more than 80% reduction in emissions. The biofilter on the poultry facility was installed without a dust filter and dust on the fans prevented accurate airflow measurement. Reductions were less than 40% on the poultry biofilter.

Feasibility Study on the Rapid Compositional Analysis of Hog Manure by Near Infrared Spectroscopy

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This study added a near-infrared spectroscopy (NIRS) dimension to a concurrent study on long-term effects of hog manure on soil quality and productivity. It expands knowledge of the applicability of NIRS for the rapid analysis of hog manure. It complements an earlier MLMMI-supported study (98-01-15) in three ways. First, it repeated exploration of the feasibility of developing useful NIR calibrations for nutrients, N, P, and K in hog manure. Secondly, it expanded the sources of variability in the sample set from 7 to 25 hog manure ponds. Thirdly, it greatly expanded the constituents examined from physical parameters, nutrients and salts to include 27 metals and minor elements. The 75 samples in this study were analyzed by Norwest Lab for % moisture, electrical conductivity, nitrate-N, N, P, K, Na, Ca, Mg, Cl, and a suite of trace elements Because the samples were stored for several months before being scanned by NIRS, they were re-analyzed in the Freshwater Institute Analytical Laboratory for NH4-N, total dissolved N, suspended N, total dissolved P, soluble reactive P, suspended P, and suspended C. Samples were scanned using a Foss NIRSystems Inc. Model 6500 visible and near-infrared scanning spectrophotometer from 400 to 2500 nm using Near-infrared Spectroscopic Analysis Software (NSAS). Samples were scanned in a watertight cell with a path length of 2 mm in the transflectance mode. The cell was scanned in a static mode and in a spinning cup module. Calibrations were developed between the spectral data and the chemical data for each constituent using the multiple linear regression option of the NSAS software and evaluated statistically. Useful calibrations were developed for NH4-N, TDN, Suspended N, Total N, TDP, SRP, Suspended P, Total P, Suspended C, Ca, Mg, Ba, Be, Cd, Cu, Cr, Fe, Mn, Mo, Ni, Se, Sr, S, Ti, V, and Zn. Useful results were not obtained for Na, K, Cl, Al, As, B, and Li. Analysis of the constituent and spectral data by Principal Component Analysis demonstrated this may be a useful tool for sample selection for the development of future robust calibrations for field use.