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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:
Estimation of the energy content in barley
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on January 1, 1996 | No Comments
Barley is the main cereal grain used by the pork industry in western Canada and thus is a primary source of energy in the piga
The preference of pigs for fresh air over ammoniated air.
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Hot-Spots For Piglets
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The article looks at a number of multiple heat sources for baby pigs in farrowing houses. Electrical pads save on energy costs compared to conventional electric lamps. Historically because of low priced electricity, electric heating was predoninant. An increasing proportion of European farrowing places have 2 heated areas – one on each side of the sow’s crate. It is a trend that the new regional rules for solid pen floors are expected to encourage. New microwave radiation delivers heat directly to the animal and is therefore energy efficient as the heat is not carried away by the airflow in the room. Pad type piglet heaters are summarized from a trade show in France.
Chronic exposure of pigs to airborne dust and endotoxins in an environmental chamber: technical note.
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A new experimental setup was developed to expose pigs to dust and airborne endotoxins in an environmental chamber. 2 pigs of 10 kg body-weight were housed in a chamber to measure inhalable and respirable dust gravimetric concentrations using area samplers. The respirable dust concentration was also measured using a TM digital microP respirable dust-measuring instrument. The endotoxin concentration was evaluated using the Limulus-assay and expressed as ng/m3 of air containing the inhalable or respirable dust or as ng/mg of inhalable and respirable dust. Feed flour dust was introduced into the chamber to obtain different concentrations of inhalable and respirable dust ranging from 3.62 to 76.66 mg/m3 and from 0.24 to 1.40 mg/m3, respectively. The endotoxin concentration was modulated by mixing the feed flour with Escherichia coli endotoxins before blowing it into the chamber. The endotoxin concentrations in the air containing inhalable or respirable dust ranged from 28.9 to 270.0 ng/m3 and from 2.22 to 36.38 ng/m3, respectively, depending on the amount of endotoxins added to the dust. It is concluded that this experimental setup could be used to study the significance of air contaminants in the development of pig respiratory diseases.
Ice Pressures in Liquid Manure Tanks
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The ice in manure concrete manure tanks present an additionnal load on the structure and ice thickness has to be determined for a given geographical situation in order to consider it in the design of the structure. Improperly design manure storage structures can fail and cause leakage and environmental contamination.
Availability of Macronutrients to Field Crops from Alternative Manure Systems
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This chapter review the situation on the availability of macronutrients, nitrogen (N), phosphorus (P) and potassium (K) by field crops. The importance of ammoniacal N is presented, this N portion is rapidly used by the crop and its availability is close to fertilizer N. Method and time of manure application are also discussed. To improve N utilization by the crop, the contact of manure to air while spreading should be lowered to a minimum and spreading time should be as close as possible to the time the plant is going to need N. Long term ammonia release after spreading is discussed along with methods to measure the N availability in manure. P availability to crops is also discussed and is considered to be as available as fertilizer P, a value of about 40%. Part of the phosphorus in the manure is organic P and represent 5 to 15% of the total P in the manure. More research is needed to evaluate if the availability of 40% is really valid. Long-term manure P contributions to soil should still be evaluated by soil P tests. As for K, its availability is considered as high as for fertilizer K.
The evaluation of dehulled canola meal in the diets of growing and finishing pigs
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The major restriction to the expanded use of canola meal in swine diets is its low level of energy digestibility. There are many approaches that one might take to replace at least half of the soybean meal in their diet. In this two-phase experiment (growing phase, 24-56 kg; finishing phase, 71 a
Influence of maternal experiences on pig behaviour.
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