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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:
Surveying odor nuisance of a plant: purpose and practical guidelines. Case studies of sewage treatment plants.
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1997 | No Comments
A community odor survey can give more specific information about the nuisance coming from specific process operations in waste water plants. This tool can help define the frequency and the spatial distribution of the odor nuisance and by studying the results, links can be made to specific plant operations. Guidelines of the methodology and two case studies are presented. Such a survey has to be accepted and well announce within the community to assure a sufficient participation. The participant registered appreciation of the quality of the odor in the outdoor air (from no nuisance to severe nuisance) on an hourly basis when possible. Those responses were linked to meteorological data to know at least the wind speed and direction to determine the orientation of the odor dispersion.
This is an interesting tool to appreciate the spatial dispersion and the frequency of odor emission. Such a survey could also be linked with dispersion model to add more information and also to evaluate the appreciation of the odor nuisance by the community.
Application of Swine Manure to Clay Soils in Manitoba
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
The effect of repeated manure applications on chemical and physical properties of upper horizons in clay soils were verified. Samples were take on the 0 – 120 cm of Osborne, Red River and Marquette clays in 12 locations in the Red River Valley region of Manitoba. Samples were done on soils that had received 5 to 30 manure applications they were compared to similar soils that did not received manure. Changes in the chemical properties were observed in the soils that received manure. The soils that received manure showed a potential for salts accumulation in the surface horizons of clay soils (0-15cm) as average electrical conductivity and chloride concentration were higher. Also for the same soil depth, the pH was lower and the average organic matter was higher for the soil that received manure. For all depth studied, the average nitrate- nitrogen and phosphate- phosphorus and potassium concentration measured were higher where manure was applied. No real evidence of sodification could be observed. The differences measured for higher sodium and exchangeable sodium percentage levels in the 0 – 15 cm depth on the soils that received manure were not statistically significant.
The effect of manure application on clay soils in Manitoba showed changes in the soil properties. The soils’ salinity was not changed significantly for the manure application levels of this experiment. For soils that have high salinity levels, feed rations given to hog should be tested to make sure that the sodium and chloride levels do not exceed the recommended levels. As the manure application levels exceeded the nitrogen requirements of plants on several of the fields nitrate leaching could be observed at 120 cm. Appropriate application rate would reduce nitrate leaching and also lower the salinity potential (lower electrical conductivity and chloride levels in the upper soils’ layers).
Environmental implications of livestock production
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Behaviour of early-weaned pigs
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
An experiment was conducted to investigate the effects of current early weaning practices on the behaviour of piglets in the nursery and through the grower/finisher phase. Two treatments were compared: weaning at 21 or weaning at 12 days of age. Treatments were housed in separate but identical on-site nursery rooms, and within the same grower/finisher rooms. Pigs weaned at 12 days of age were found to be slower to develop normal levels of eating behaviour than those weaned at 21 days of age, but did so by 48 h after weaning. During the subsequent 5 a
Stirring the Pit
Posted in: Energy by admin on | No Comments
This article examines a type of windmill manure lagoon aerator. This windmill is mounted on pontoons anchored in the middle of an Embro farmers 330,000-gallon manure tank. The pits contents are brought to the surface gradually where they are exposed to the air. The Embro area farmers farm became the experimental site not only because he has an interest in keeping odours under control, but also because he has two adjacent manure tanks.
Odour levels were low and manure nutrient levels were not affected by the machine. No maintanance is required and the amount of power needed to spin the windmill depends on the consistency of the liquid. The agitator costs between $3000 and $5000 depending on whether they are wind or electrically driven.
Respiratory responses of human subjects to air quality in a swine building.
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
The purpose of this study is to test the following hypotheses: (1) if air quality control strategy can be directly evaluated by measuring respiratory responses in swine building environments. Twenty naA?ve human subjects (subjects were between 18 and 35 years old and had never been exposed to an enclosed swine environment before) were exposed to two different air qualities, a treatment and a control, in a swine building. The treatment room was sprinkled with crude canola oil, which reduced the dust, ammonia and hydrogen sulfide by 93%, 30% and 27%, respectively, compared with the control. Each subject spent five hours in each room. They were scheduled to do a bicycle exercise that was intended to simulate the barn workersa
Reduction of Ammonia Volatilization by Housing and Feeding in Fattening Piggeries
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Appropriate pen design where less than 50% of the floor surface is slatted combined to a good control of the indoor conditions (particularly in the summer to prevent pen fouling) can reduce the ammonia emission and also improve animal welfare.