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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:
Radiant Heating vs. Floor Heating
Posted in: Energy by admin on January 1, 1996 | No Comments
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.
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
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.
Structural Design of Liquid Manure Tanks
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
Improperly design manure storage structures can fail and cause leakage and environmental contamination. This publication review the parameters that have to be considered for concrete manure storage conception to assure maximum lifetime of the structure.
Transport of Nitrogen, Phosphorus and Disease Organisms from Manure into Surface and Groundwater.
Posted in: Environment by admin on | No Comments
This chapter, the factors that can have an impact on water quality are reviewed particularly for contamination of ground and surface water by nitrate, phosphorus and disease organisms. The focus is made on potential contamination as a result of manure application on land. The first step is to present the unbalanced nutrients ratio N:P:K of the swine and dairy manure (2:1:1,5 and 4:1:3 respectively) compared to the need of heavy yielding corn (7:1:7) for example. This would suggest not to use N as the limiting factor but rather to use P and supplement for the other nutrients. However the availability of nutrients is difficult to assess particularly for N as many losses can occur depending on the climatic conditions and also on the spreading method as NH3 can be emitted directly as gas, nitrification can occur and nitrate can be lost by leaching and denitrification can also occur resulting in N2O and N2 as gaseous emissions. N deposition can also come from the atmosphere, quantity which is difficult to evaluate. The survival of different pathogenic bacteria depends on different factors for example: soil pH, soil water and organic matter contents, soil texture, temperature and others. It is thus difficult to predict the bacteria becoming as a general trend. The transport of the contaminant is dependent of their concentration in the soil and also on the water flow available to move them. The application rate of the manure and also the number of years of repeated manure applications have a direct effect on the nitrate potentially available for leaching. So the higher are the rates and the more years the manure is applied, the higher are the risks for leaching contaminants in water. Manure spreading the closer to the crop growing period lower also the risk for nitrate leaching. Injection rather than surface application lower the risk of leaching. Some paths are given for further research particularly on the availability of nitrogen and other nutrients in the manure, the transport of those nutrients that can become contaminants under certain circumstances and the more information on disease organisms and the factors affecting their transport.
Many elements are presented in this review. Some conclusions can be drawn from this information and they are that specific factors increase the risks for leaching of contaminants and degradation of water quality and they are: high application rate; application done a long time before the growing season; manure applied directly on soil rather than injected particularly during rainy periods.
The evaluation of dehulled canola meal in the diets of growing and finishing pigs
Posted in: Prairie Swine Centre by admin on | No Comments
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
Watch for Hot Air in Ventilation Specs
Posted in: Energy by admin on | No Comments
There are many ways to define the term energy use efficiency in the ventilating fan industry and everyone seems to choose the one -high or low- which supports their particular argument for buying or not buying. Use 240V motors not 120V to increase energy use efficiency. Do not use hp or amperage to compare fan efficiencies. Fan energy use efficiency can be determined by dividing the cubic feet air/min by the wattage. Simply look at the cfm/W rating; the higher the cfm/W, the more efficient it is.
Emissions de methane au cours du stockage des dejections animales
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The article and abstract are in french.
Methane is considered as one of the principal greenhouse gas. Among the potential methane sources coming from agriculture, the emissions resulting of anaerobic manure fermentation during storage can be considered as a specific source. Laboratory measurements were done to determine the carbon emissions (CH4, CO2) from stored swine manure. Two trials of 50 days each were realized on manure stored in a laboratory reactor and measurements were done using infra-red gas absorption technique. Direct measurements were compared to indirect evaluation by measurements of the diminution of the C concentration in the manure.Different ventilation regimes over the manure resulted in different levels of C losses that could reach 12,5% of the initial C content over the trial period compared to 5% for closed reactor. Different manure were tested to verify the variation in their C losses. The higher C losses were mesured for the raw manure with 18,9% and strained manure with 18,8%, lower C losses were observed with aerated manure. Of those C losses in the case of raw manure and strained manure the portion of CH4 of those losses was 60 % compred to 6% for the aerated manure. Slightly higher values for the C losses were obtained with the indirect measures with 20,8%, 23,4% and 5,1% respectively.