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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:
Alternative housing for sows and litters 1. Effects of sow-controlled housing on responses to weaning.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on January 1, 1999 | No Comments
Dairy cows' use of colour cues to discriminate between people.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Aversive handing of farm animals, and the animals’ resulting fear of people, can substantially reduce both production and the welfare of the animals, and increase the risk of injury to the handlers. Research has found that cows can distinguish between people who handle them aversively and those who handle them gently. The aim of this series of experiments was to examine the ability of dairy cows to discriminate between handlers based on the colour of the clothes worn. A total of 66 Danish Friesian cows were used. The average distance cows kept from the person was calculated from 12 scores during 1 min with the person standing in front of the cow. In experiment A, the distance cows kept, from two unfamiliar people wearing red or yellow overalls, was tested. There was no difference in the distance the cows kept from the two people and the two colours. In experiment B, the distance cows kept from an unfamiliar person wearing familiar coloured overalls (blue) was compared to when the same unfamiliar person was wearing red or yellow overalls. There was no effect due to the colour of the overalls. In experiment C, cows were handled repeatedly, by two handlers wearing overalls of the same colour. Each person handled six cows gently and six cows aversively. There was no significant difference in distance kept from the gentle and the aversive handler. In experiment D, cows were handled repeatedly by one person wearing either red or yellow overalls. The person wore one colour when handling the cows gently and the other colour when handling aversively. The cows kept a longer distance when the handler wore the colour worn during the aversive treatment than when the handler wore the colour worn during the gentle treatment. The cows also responded according to the colour of the clothes when worn by an unfamiliar person, although they kept a shorter distance from the unfamiliar person than to the handler. The results suggested that cows could learn to avoid or approach the same handler based on the colour of overalls the handler wore during the gentle or aversive treatment.
Performance Records on Relatives
Posted in: Production by admin on | No Comments
Estimating the genetic merit of all individuals in a herd is required before a comprehensive selection and genetic improvement program can be successful. Performance records need to be
collected on as many animals as possible, ideally on every animal in the herd. Since animals have relatives and progeny in the herd, the records on these relatives or groups of relatives can be
used to improve the estimation of the genetic merit of an individual animal.
Animals are related when they receive some identical genes from a common ancestor. When they have genes in common, the performance of one individual for a given trait can be used to help
estimate genetic merit for other related individuals.
Genetic evaluations conducted by the majority of breed organizations and breeding stock companies use the animal model and best linear unbiased prediction (BLUP) procedures. This technology is used to determine expected progeny differences (EPDs) for the animals evaluated. An EPD is the predicted average performance difference of the offspring from a breeding animal compared to the average performance of the offspring from other animals in the same population. The animal model not only uses
the individuala
Evaluation of Odor Control Technologies for Curtain-Sided Swine Barns
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A three step process being used to determine the best technologies for reducing odors from curtain-sided, deep-pit swine finishing barns has been funded. The planned three-step process to research and develop economic, viable and capable dor control systems for Minnesota curtain-sided, deep-pit finishing barns appears to be progressing well, The initial screening is partially completed and five different technologies are in the early implementation stge. Cooperators are coming on board and learning their part of the research. The fast track plan to implement the most promising systems seems to be a reasonable situation and will provide longer term solutions with reasonable data to compare more systems for the unique situaton in Minnesota.
Demonstration of Liquid Manure as a Fertility Source on Grassland
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Due to the short growing season and and change in cropping practices the window in which manure can be applied is becoming smaller. One solution to this scenario is the low distrubance injection of manure into grassland. The Manitoba Livestock Manure Management Initiative (MLMMI) in cordination with the Prairie Agricultural Machinery Instiutute (PAMI) are determining the most suitable methods for use on grassland, as well monitoring odour and yield response for the various manure application methods.
Odor Emissions fromSwine Nursery Buildings
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Odour generates the largest number of complaints with respect to intensive livestock operations, howver the measurement of baseline odour levels is not widely available. This study intended to measure building odour emissions and gain further infromation for the development of odour impact guidelines for the pork production facilities. In order to achieve this two objectives were established: measure odour concentration and emsission from pif nursery facilities and assess the intensity and offensiveness of odour emitted by swine nurseries.
Two mechanically ventilated nurseries were used to measure odour concentration and offensiveness between March and May 1999. Odour threshold values were determined by a dynamic dilution, forced-choice olfactometre. The resultd indicate a relatively low sampling variance, with odour concentration of pit fans ranging from 94-635 OU averaging 190 OU.Outdoor odour concetration levels averaged 23 OU ranging from 7-85 OU. The arthimetic odour emission rate was 53% of the emission rate reported by Heber(1998) for swine finishing barns. While on the building floor area, the geometric mean of building odour emission was 42% of the value measured by Heber (1998) for finishing buildings. It appears that finishing pigs emit about 90% more odours per animal unit and 140% more per unit area than nursery pigs. Manure depth also seemed to positively influence the odour emission rate. Greater manure depths encourage more anaerobic microbial activities which cause production of more odourous gases.
Movement of Coliform Bacteria Through Riparian Buffer Systems Rceiving Swine Lagoon Wastewater
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Movement of total and fecal coliorms were studued in a riparian overland flow system receiving swine wastewater. Wastewater was applied in a single pulse during four different seasons, and soil water and groundwater were collected at four different depths and distances from the source. Total and fecal coliform bacteria survival was measured by sampling 2-4 days prior to wastewater application and 1, 3, 7, 14 and 90-120 days after the application of swine wastewater.
The results indicated that: 1) total and fecal bacteria counts did not decrease in the wastewater as water moved downslope regardless of vegatation type or season, 2) total and fecal coliform bacteria counts were different in the three types of vegatative filters used. 3) total and fecal coliform counts decreases by one magnitude every seven days regardless of the vegatative treatment orseason. 4) total and fecal coliform bacteria were positively correlated to groundwater temperature and soil moisture 5) total and fecal coliform levels were lower in groundwater immediately prrior to the application of swine wastwater and were usually less than the control (area of vegatation that previously had no wastewater applied).