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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:
On-Farm Socio-economics of Manure Management
Posted in: Environment by admin on January 1, 1996 | No Comments
The cost of manure management and environmental protection are difficult to assess and when considering profit maximizing farms, there are no advantages in investing in costly practices to reduce the impact of manure on the environment. Environmental regulations are also considered as measures that reduce the companies’ competitive advantages and could eventually costs jobs. In assessing new ways or technologies that could help solving the environmental impact of manure tools have to be developed and used to make thorough investigations of the situation and final economical analysis that could lead to choices of management practices or techniques. All the steps of manure management have to be investigated from production , handling and processing through manure utilization and all the on-farm costs and benefits have to be considered. Different methods of analysis or tools have to be developed and used in order to help in the choice of manure management practices and those methods are: cost/benefit analysis, mathematical programming and expert systems. Work has to be done to all cost estimates related to different manure management practices usual ones as well a newly developed ones. All this information has to be put together in user-friendly tools in order to help the producers in their manure system choices.
This publication present different analysis methods that have been developed in some areas such as dairy farming and also livestock in general. In order to keep accurate tools, there is an important need for data updates for those analysis systems or computer aids.
Manure Management Effects on Surface and Groundwater
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Since 1992, manure application on cropland has been made on a farm of a swine farrow-to-finish production unit of 200 sow. Monitoring of the surface and groundwater has been made and the results show that most of the nutrient losses occurred as tile flow. Concentration of nutrients have been measured and the average of nitrate-N levels were slightly above the health recommended concentration, 13,8 mg/L compared to 10mg/L. Leaching from commercially fertilized crop ground are generally slightly higher than the value found. The phosphorus concentration averaged 0,6 mg/L. The nutrient losses from runoff was not significant as very little occurred. Testing on groundwater was also done. The results show that higher nitrate concentrations could be measured the years after fall application had been done and when the overapplying manure. The average concentration in ground water for the 3 rates and the two years samples is 13,6 mg/L.
The application rates of nutrients from manure were: for 1992, 157 kg/ha of N and 48 kg/ha P; for 1993, 215 kg/ha of N and 137 kg/ha of P and finally for 1994, 198 kg/ha and 122kg/ha de P. The manure treatments on the plots consisted of no manure, the application rates presented, 2 times the application rates and the final one was 3 times the application rates.
Predicting nutrient requirements based on protein deposition rates
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
By partitioning the piga
Sensitivity of reproducing sows and suckling pigs to stray voltage.
Posted in: Welfare by admin on | No Comments
Which Heating System for Piglets?
Posted in: Energy by admin on | No Comments
A team of five University researchers in Germany assessed the quality of heat supply from 11 different creep heating arrangements. Radiant heaters needed the most effective energy. Power required for underfloor heating by electricity was about 1/3 lower than for the warm water panels. Cost for heating is not the only consideration, as efficiency in terms of energy use is not always best for the pig. The better the heat supply, the more time piglets spend lying on their side. A graph of ideal lying behavior and average piglet weight gains on the heating system tested is discussed.
A possible relationship between low facility dust and endotoxin levels and improved growth rates in pigs reared by Isowean(SM).
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Dust concentrations and total and respirable endotoxin were measured in 2 types of pig-rearing facilities: an isolated nursery and nursery within a conventional farm. Dust and endotoxin concentrations were significantly higher in the conventional nursery compared with the isolated nursery. Pigs in the isolated nursery had significantly higher body weights and larger thymus glands, spleens and cervical lymph nodes than animals reared in the conventional farm. It is suggested that there may be an association between environmental facility contaminants and growth rate.
Water use and drinker management: a review.
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The importance of water intake for pigs is presented and the wastage done, the water intake of pigs, the drinking behavior and the types of drinkers are discussed. In order to reduce to a minimum the wastage, the management of nipple drinkers is necessary and the height of the nipple has to be varied with the animal body weight and can be determined for nipples mounted at a 90 degree angle using the following relationship: 15 * BW^0,33 cm (where BW is the body weight in kg). For downward mounted nipple the height is determined in cm using 18 * BW^0,33 which represents approximately 120% of the pig’s shoulder height. The height should be determined in order to accommodate the smallest pig in the pen. Flow rate should also be controlled in order to minimize the wastage. For nipple drinker, here are recommended values: for the nursery, 500 ml/min; for grow/finish, 700 ml/min; for gestation, 1000 ml/min and for lactation 1500 ml/min.
Means to reduce water wastage have to be considered as the excess manure produced has to be stored and subsequently spread. The extra water coming from spillage contribute only in more dilution of the nutrients in the manure. Useful management tips for nipple drinkers are presented here.
Availability of Residual Phosphorus in Manured Soils
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As manure is often applied to meet the nitrogen requirement of the crop, phosphorus is thus applied in excess and will stock in the soil. When agronomically and environmentally management systems are integrated by farmers, it become difficult to evaluate how P will decrease in the soil. The method discussed was used to evaluate the release of P for different soil types, management and fertility status. Such release would be done to the plants over the years and crops however using Fe-oxide strips (iron oxide) allowed to verify the P availability more rapidly. This method could be used to compared and find optimal crop management for different types of soil.
Investigation have to be done to find ways to lower the phosphorus level in soil where manure still have to be spread on land. Different crop systems on specific soils could be optimum in using the available P however, this evaluation process takes time if we consider only annual cropping experiments. The method developed seems to be an interesting approach to speed this evaluation.