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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:
Hot-Spots For Piglets
Posted in: Energy by admin on January 1, 1996 | No Comments
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.
Estimation of the energy content in barley
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | 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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Radiant Heating vs. Floor Heating
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The article looks at a barn trial comparing the heating costs of infrared radiant tubes versus hot water floor tubes combined with forced air gas. Air is heated by an ATL 60,000 BTUH unvented forced air gas unit heater and a central Slant Fin 140,000 BTUH gas fired hot water broiler is used to heat the water being piped to each nursery. Radiant tube heating is much cheaper, controls humidity and requires litte maintenance. There is more even heat throughout the room and thus the producer gets more for each energy dollar spent. Tube type gas fired infrared heating radiates reflected heat to the objects in the room. It does not heat the air, it heats the pigs. The trial found a 48% difference between the systems. Radiant tube heat has better utilization of energy than the broiler for hot water and the forced air gas.
Recirculation of filtered air in pig barns.
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Recirculating air filtration systems were tested to reduce dust and bacteria levels inside the feeder barns of a hog farm in the Fraser Valley of British Columbia. Design of the air filtration systems had to be reconciled with the existing structures and ventilation system in the barns. Multiple fabric filters and a high-voltage, plate-type electrostatic precipitator were selected as dust collection devices for the grower and finisher barns, respectively. Each barn was partitioned into two halves with one serving as the experimental unit equipped with the air filtration system and the other as the control unit. Recirculation air flow rate was set at 20 air changes per hour which lies between the summer and winter ventilation rates. Monitored parameters included air quality indices (respirable and inhalable dust levels, bacterial counts, and ammonia level), environmental and operating parameters (temperature, relative humidity, filter pressure drop, and air flow rate), and animal performance (average growth rate, carcass grading, and necropsies). Visits to the farm were conducted regularly once a week during the first 9 months and subsequently once every two weeks during the rest of the 18-month period of the study. The air filtration systems effectively reduced dust levels and aerial bacteria counts inside the pig barns although their efficiency was dependent upon air recirculation flow rate, location, size, and number of inlets and outlets, and humidity. Although the effect on indoor ammonia level was indeterminate, air filtration resulted in reduced prevalence of enzootic pneumonia and atrophic rhinitis among the pigs. It also accelerated animal growth as evidenced by an increase in average daily mass gain which translated to a shorter number of days to market. Air filtration showed no significant effect on the temperature and humidity inside the barn. The electrostatic precipitator exhibited higher dust removal efficiency during winter and spring time and was almost as effective as the fabric filter during the other seasons of the year. In terms of bacteria reduction, the electrostatic precipitator was consistently more effective than the fabric filters.